AI, Apple, and the impending catastrophe that is iOS 18
A plethora of new features for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia were recently released by Apple. Along with more customisation options for the home screen and control centre, the "biggest redesign ever" for the Photos app, and new features for Messages, Mail, Notes, Safari, Apple TV, Journal, Maps, and Wallet, there's a lot of emphasis on AI, now known as Apple Intelligence. If only marginally, it seems like a change to almost everything on your phone.
Meanwhile, everything seems too large from an outside perspective, as if there were an ocean of junk close to breaking through Apple's impenetrable clean systems. Apple's intelligence is impressive, including both supposedly ground-breaking privacy protections and system-wide ones that don't encroach too much. However, the picture creation features are hideous and jarringly inconsistent with Apple's brand. It seems like iOS is experiencing feature creep when you combine the extensive list of changes to the OS and applications that come with AI with the redesign that AI delivers.
The more choices Apple offers me, the harder it is for me to really use any of the newly added functions. This is similar to how most people only use one or two of the seventy settings on their sophisticated washing machine, or how choosing just one option on Netflix has become impossible. Like every Android user, I should be happy now that I have so many stuff, right? No, I'm simply unable to participate.
This was my first thinking when Apple released the focus modes in iOS 15 in 2021. Different notification delivery choices are available with focus modes depending on your location, whether it's at work, school, or just relaxing in bed. Although that seems easy enough, it's not.
You may set up automatic focus modes on your iPhone. Your sleep focus blocks everything, yet your work concentration could include Slack et al. On the other hand, you choose which applications may alert you and who can get in touch with you if you attempt to create your own concentration. When you access the focus settings, every downloaded app and all of your contacts are available for selection. You are incapable of making such a choice. It's all or nothing, then. Either choose "Do Not Disturb" or say "Hello, may I ask who's calling?" "Hello sir, we would want to assist you with your personal injury claim as we have heard that you were involved in an accident at work.
I can concentrate in three different ways. No alerts when you choose "Do Not Disturb." Notifications from work are only accepted if they come from my mother. When I go to sleep, my watch tracks my sleep and I receive a small alarm widget to check when I wake up on my home screen. This is rather pleasant, and my many focuses come on naturally based on the situation. It took me two years to figure out what I wanted this feature to accomplish, but I have a method that works for me. Before realising I wanted something straightforward, I had to cope with poor focus modes. For two years, I was unsure about my goals.
Customisation will now reach unprecedented heights. With iOS 18, you may arrange applications on your home screen in any order; you're not limited to placing them close to one another. You can also choose the colour of each app icon to establish a theme. If you have taste, or even a passing understanding of visual aesthetics, then this is acceptable.
A clean backdrop and complementary app colour may be used to give your iPhone a whole new appearance. On the Apple website, there are a number of beautiful renditions of iOS 18. That being said, you may also produce something really unsightly, which has proven to be rather difficult on iOS up to this point. The fact that not every home screen on the iOS 18 website is appealing is what's most revealing. Some people are the exact opposite.
Worst of all, when app icons are all the same colour, their readability drastically decreases. This is an excellent example of a badly designed user interface. Although I am not a specialist in user interface design, Apple employs professionals in this area. Over many generations of iPhones, they have created an operating system that is easy to use and a little boring. They know what's best, therefore I want them to make the choices for me. Rather, I now have the chance to negatively impact my experience, which is undesirable.
The control centre is affected by the same problem. I already struggle to choose which applications to include in this drop-down selection. I keep tapping the alarm clock icon instead of the stopwatch symbol when I should be swiping down from the upper right corner of my screen. Why would I need more choices than that? In light of this, why would I want the Snapchat button on my home screen rather than the camera button?
Of course, users have the option to customise or leave it stock, but this decision exposes a more fundamental issue: Apple no longer seems to know what's best. It's a home screen button that only I can use if I have a Snapchat symbol on my home screen since I still have to unlock my phone. What happens, however, if my buddy wants to use my phone to snap a picture? What if I open Snapchat in the middle of the night and realise I need my torch and am staring at a dark photo of my own hideous face? I don't think anybody who plans to swap out those two home screen icons will make wise choices.
Though subjective, I think the main difference between iPhone vs. Android (or Mac vs. Windows) is that the former lacks customisation. In other words, my experience is cleaner the less options there are. If I'm not going to be tinkering with all the settings, launchers, and other accessories that come with an Android phone, I don't want to use it. I use Android phones for that purpose up until I become tired and decide I don't really like it on a daily basis. Now that iOS 18 is out, I'm concerned it may activate my tinkerer's urge, which I don't want to.
Sadly, however, Apple's latest upgrades include Apple Intelligence, which promises much more. AI is an ocean unto itself, a terrifyingly deep one teeming with pink handfish with an oversupply of fingers and three-headed anglerfish. Thus, integrating this ocean with iOS inevitably exacerbates the problems mentioned above; in addition to feature modifications inside individual applications, we're now receiving AI gizmos across the system.
A portion of this seems to be helpful. It may assist you with rewriting a note, editing an email, or providing a condensed version of a lengthy Slack chat. Most of this is just nice, straightforward stuff that happens every day (though writing is fun when you make errors since that's how you learn). Your phone can summarise emails in your inbox and prioritise alerts thanks to this semantic understanding. Furthermore, an update to Apple's struggling digital assistant, Siri, promises to finally put the assistant on par with, if not slightly ahead of, its rivals. If it succeeds, all of this is fantastic news.
But Apple is also creating photos using AI. Two problems arise with this: Firstly, regardless of how strong the diffusion model is, current AI-generated photos are bad; Secondly, based on what the company demonstrated at WWDC, Apple's on-device image production is particularly bad. Consequently, you wind up with very terrible pictures of your friends or relatives.
Your friend's birthday celebration, complete with cake and balloons, and your mother as a superhero. All I can say is, Jesus H. Christ, simply tell your mother how you feel, give your pal a bouquet of flowers or a genuine cake, or just say it with kind words. These terrible plasticine AI monsters should not be used as a means of expressing love. I would really appreciate it if someone sent me one for a very, truly great joke.
A new generating system is also included, which may display whatever emoji you like, such as a squirrel DJ or a happy face with cucumber eyes. Even if this is a ridiculous addition to the already ridiculous oversupply of emoji, it's still good. Emoji are simple, less offensive inventions, thus AI doesn't appear to do a bad job with them, therefore I don't hate this feature. Again, however, choice is something I do not like.
There are a few choices available to you when you ask your iPhone to create an emoji. I can only surmise that Apple wants the customer to make the final decision because it doesn't trust its model to provide a winner every time. But what harm is it doing to my brain when I have to choose between two pictures of a T-rex on a surfboard, each with a tutu? Even if the sum is little, it is not zero.
Nevertheless, here we have Apple, commanding us with pride to "create awesome images in seconds, like an image of a cat as a chef." Where was that voiceover recorded, and what studio? Before the narrator finished it without giggling, how many takes did it take? Or was it just one take, a flawless session lasting less than sixty minutes in that echoing chamber that included not even the faintest hint of bitter humour? Who knows? But iOS 18 obviously lacks taste, and I want you to have excellent taste for me, Apple.
That concludes our discussion on Apple, artificial intelligence, and the impending release of iOS 18. While you're here, make sure to check out our hub for rumours and leaks about the upcoming major release of Apple smartphones, theiPhone 16, or our guides to thebest Samsung phones, thebest Google Pixel phones, and thebest Motorola phones to see the latest developments.