This is Technology Bytes, episode 93 for December 15th, 2024.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
Sometimes I forget where the rest of the world is on Apple software releases.
And this week I’m going to talk about Apple intelligence.
I know I’ve talked about it before.
I’ve been on the beta forever.
That’s just what I do, as you are probably aware by now.
And so I, I sometimes forget that the public doesn’t see what I’m seeing at the moment.
And although I am the public as well, I mean, the general public, the non-nerds, so to speak.
And so this week Apple released the latest versions of iOS, iPad OS and Mac OS that have Apple intelligence in them and the versions of 18.2 on the iOS side and 15.2 on the Mac side.
And they have things that Apple has been talking about for some time that they really talk quite a bit about at their WWDC conference in June.
And so now they are finally in the hands of the general public.
And while I haven’t heard a lot from people in my circle of Apple users, I have heard a lot from podcasts that I listened to news that I read those kinds of things.
And there’s a mixture of what people think.
Some are like, okay, fine.
This has been around for a while.
This has been able to be done by this or that or whatever.
I think the integration with chat GPT, although sometimes that makes me feel uncomfortable, but that’s just because that’s not where I’ve lived.
It’s kind of funny that I’m a technology net and don’t use chat GPT at all.
I’ve been kind of waiting for Apple intelligence in that respect.
So the use of chat GPT, I think makes Apple intelligence a little more powerful.
Although with lots of caveats about what is at risk, if you choose to use chat GPT, those kinds of things.
But it is something that now is in the hands of the more general public.
And it will be interesting as time goes on to see what they think.
Now in my close knit family, my wife is running an iPhone 14 pro.
And so she does not getting the benefits of Apple intelligence, although her computer is an M one Mac book air.
So that one will have the ability to do some of the Apple intelligence things, or most of it actually, because it does have the M one chip.
I haven’t yet spoken to her about it and showed her anything about it.
And she hasn’t said anything to me about why is my computer doing this now?
So that will be interesting to see how that happens.
My son, um, does beta stuff sometimes.
I’m not sure where he is at at the moment.
He and his wife just got new, um, iPhone 15 pro, uh, phone.
So they will be able to run the Apple intelligence information and systems and all those kinds of things, but I haven’t spoken to him about it either.
So it’ll be interesting to see over the next weeks.
If my wife asked me questions or if my kids say anything, oh, my daughter’s running a 15 pro max, my previous phone.
So she also has access to that.
And she is using, um, an iPad pro with the M one chip.
So she also has access through that.
Although her computer’s on the older side, she’s, um, running one of the last Intel versions of a MacBook pro 13 inch.
So she won’t be doing Apple intelligence on that, but at the moment, um, it’s out there, it’s available, but my general public interaction has been minimal.
If actually maybe non existent.
So I’ve already shared my thoughts on the Apple intelligence.
The one thing that I think I’ve seen it improve is some of the responses to text messages.
So that is something that I’ve seen where it’s like, Hey, here’s what you can say to this message.
Here’s what you can say to that message.
It doesn’t always exactly sound like me.
Although I have been using them a little bit more to see if my family says anything like that was weird, dad, or, you know, have my wife say, why did you send that or something like that?
Um, the writing tools I think are pretty cool.
I’ve used them a couple of times to make my email at work a little more concise and to make sure I’m getting my point across a little bit better.
And, but I haven’t used them in the sense of make this more friendly or, or make this more business-like.
I can’t remember all the settings that you can choose, but there are quite a few.
And I think that leads me into my next conversation point.
So the one thing that Apple has been doing for since the iPhone 16 came out is lots of commercials about Apple intelligence, not necessarily what it will do, but the fact that it is going to be available on that device without ever saying what it’s actually going to do.
They’ve been kind of strange in that respect.
It’s like, Oh, my phone’s ready for Apple intelligence, but it’s not there.
They haven’t released it.
It was version 18 on the software and we didn’t really get much until 18.2.
So kind of weird in that sense on those commercials.
And then I think they stumbled, I’ve, I’ve listened to a number of podcasts where they mentioned this as well.
In their ability to use the writing tools and how they portrayed that in their commercials.
And really what they did is, is, you know, from most people’s point of view.
And I think I mostly agree with it is made it look like Apple users are ridiculous and unaware and unprepared and use Apple intelligence to make themselves look better to their coworkers, to their bosses, to the world in general.
And, you know, that’s not a good picture to paint of your users.
It may be a way that some people will use Apple intelligence to make themselves look better.
I think that is actually one of the main uses for it potentially, but I think portraying the users of your devices as unable to be intelligent, hardworking, recognizable forces in their world is a mistake.
So what I mean by that is people need Apple users should be portrayed by Apple, especially as intelligent people who make good choices.
And then on top of that, they have to build a world that says, here’s how you can use Apple intelligence to further enhance what you already are as a person.
And they really haven’t done that until just recently.
So recently I saw another commercial where a person was very angry and writing that email that none of us should ever write.
And before they sent it, they highlighted the whole email and chose make this friendlier.
And so while getting the point across to the person that they were sending the email to, they weren’t condescending, their anger was toned back a lot, and yet they were still able to make the point.
And sometimes even intelligent people have a difficult time doing that.
And so the fact that an Apple user is smart enough to know that they need help from Apple intelligence to make sure that they don’t make a silly mistake that might cost them their future.
I think that’s a good use of Apple intelligence and doesn’t necessarily paint the user in a bad perspective.
It makes them look like a person who can use some help.
And I thought that was a good commercial, way better than the ones that say, I’m goofing off at work and I send my boss a message and Apple intelligence make me look like I’m the best employee they have, even though, you know, I’m picking my nose, nose or something like that.
Or I forgot my husband’s birthday and, and I use Apple intelligence to make up a video of pictures on my phone and say, Oh, here you go.
Happy birthday.
And it makes me look good.
You know, those are bad things, I think.
But having a Apple intelligence, make sure you don’t make a mistake by sending an angry response and helping you form the words so that you get your point across without being petty, I think that is good use.
So all in all, I think we have a lot of growth to happen in Apple intelligence, obviously.
There’s going to be time before people actually use it.
And by people, I mean, those of us, those people who are not necessarily in the tech world and tech nerds.
And Apple’s going to continue to have to have commercials that show people how Apple intelligence works.
And we will see over the next couple of months, how that turns out.
That is all I have for today.
As always, if you have comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybitesatmerigfamily.com.
I want to thank you for listening to the Technology Bites microcast.
And I look forward to the next time we are together, taking another bite of technology.
