The releases of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 is shaping up to be Apple’s biggest OS refresh in a decade. On top of expected machine learning and AI advancements, the stock apps and overall look will be getting a makeover.
The releases of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 is shaping up to be Apple’s biggest OS refresh in a decade. On top of expected machine learning and AI advancements, the stock apps and overall look will be getting a makeover.
A confluence of industry trends and Apple’s own engineering efforts are coming together in a set of major updates later this year. Apple has been watching the rise of AI technology carefully, and working on it for years.
In 2018, Apple hired away Google’s John Giannandrea, who was in charge of the search giant’s Machine Learning division. Since then, he has worked tirelessly to advance Apple’s efforts in that same area.
Apple has had lots of smaller-scale improvements in various areas of what the industry calls AI ever since. That said, 2024 looks to be the year that its AI efforts rise to the surface, just in time for powerful new hardware coming this fall.
At the same time, iOS and iPadOS 18 in particular will receive a major redesign and big updates to its core applications. The other OSes and the devices that run them will of course get these updates too.
All of these years-long efforts are coming to fruition across the second half of 2024. It promised to be a major year for Apple.
2024 is the year of Apple AI
One of the biggest user-facing changes is expected to be an improved Siri voice assistant.
Siri is expected to greatly improve its ability to answer random questions and requests, starting this fall. Apple has been working on an on-device Large Language Model (LLM) to help Siri understand requests better.
That said, of course some requests will require an internet connection in order to obtain the answer. For example, asking Siri « what’s the current score in the Canucks vs Predators hockey game? » requires online updates.
Siri might now pull such results from the same sources Live Activites uses for its up-to-the-minute sports scores widget. Hopefully, the days of « I found some information on the web for you » as an answer are numbered.
Likewise, the next version of Safari is expected to gain a « browsing assistant » in this fall’s updated OSes. It should help users find websites they are looking for, similar to a built-in search engine.
Apple has recently published research suggesting it is making big advances in machine learning. The A16 and M4 chips coming later this year are said to feature a substantially larger and more powerful Neural Engine.
In addition, Apple’s AI researchers are sharing their findings with developers. This will help more applications leverage the improvements Apple is making to its future hardware.
2024 will bring a new OS with a new look
The overall look of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will get a redesign. Combined with new features in the standard apps, this is expected to mark the biggest iOS redesign since 2013’s iOS 7.
