Apple Intelligence will Soon Be Available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. But There’s a Catch 

Some may dismiss the iPhone 16 as just another upgrade, but the real game-changer in there is the A18 Pro chip. It significantly enhances the performance with its neural engine, AI features, all while maintaining strong privacy through federated learning.

Built on a 3nm process, the chip delivers exceptional efficiency and security.

While the biggest highlight from Apple’s Glowtime event was undoubtedly the new iPhone series, the Tim Cook-led company also announced a beta roll-out for Apple Intelligence, the company’s personal intelligence system that uses generative AI models.

It will start rolling out next month, with more features launching in the coming months, the company said in a news release.

Apple Intelligence is the company’s personal AI system that draws on a user’s personal context – combined with generative models – to make multiple tasks easier. Users can utilise the system across multiple apps. According to the company, many of the models that power Apple Intelligence run entirely on devices.

At the launch event, CEO Tim Cook highlighted the company’s commitment to innovation and user experience. “Some people see innovation as change, but we have never really seen it like that. It’s making things better,” he said.

This reflects Apple’s philosophy of continuous improvement rather than merely introducing new features for the sake of novelty.

Additionally, Cook emphasised the importance of privacy, asserting, “We see that privacy is a fundamental human right that people have. We are going to do everything that we can to help maintain that trust.”

Is Apple Intelligence Better than its Competitors?

To begin with, Apple Intelligence, Google Pixel’s Gemini, and Samsung’s AI capabilities each offer unique strengths in improving user experience.

Apple refined Siri by integrating ChatGPT to improve app functionality like email and photo editing, delivering a more personalised user experience. This approach prioritises privacy and local processing, appealing to users who value seamless integration and creativity.

Google’s Gemini excels in productivity with photo editing, while Samsung’s AI focuses mainly on camera features, trailing behind the innovation of Apple and Google.

Overall, while Apple provides a more creative and integrated experience, Google leads in practical AI applications, making the choice largely dependent on user preference and needs.

However, each brand tailors its technology to different user priorities.

In between all these developments, Apple’s A18 Pro chip, introduced with the iPhone lineup, represents an advancement in mobile processing technology, particularly when compared to the chips used in Google Pixel and Samsung devices.

The A18 Pro features a 6-core CPU architecture, which includes two high-performance cores and four efficiency cores. It is said to be 15% faster than the A17 Pro while consuming 20% less power.

This efficiency translates to quicker app launches, smoother multitasking, and enhanced overall performance for demanding applications, such as gaming and video editing.

In contrast, Google’s Tensor G3 and Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, while powerful, do not match the A18 Pro’s performance gains. The A18 Pro’s architecture is specifically optimised for high-performance tasks, making it particularly adept at handling complex computations and graphics-intensive applications.

The A18 Pro’s GPU is equipped with 6 cores, providing a 20% improvement in graphics performance over the A17 Pro. This makes it particularly suitable for high-end gaming and graphics rendering, supporting hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which enhances the realism of lighting and shadows in games.

In comparison, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 offers strong graphics capabilities, it does not deliver the same level of performance or efficiency as the A18 Pro.

One of the standout features of the chip is its 16-core neural engine, which is designed to handle AI and machine learning tasks with remarkable efficiency. It can process tasks twice as fast as previous generations, making it ideal for applications that rely on real-time data processing, such as image recognition and voice commands.

This positions the A18 Pro ahead of the AI capabilities found in both Google and Samsung offerings, which, while competent, do not match the speed and efficiency of Apple’s latest chip.

The design not only focuses on performance but also on energy efficiency. It uses 20% less power than the A17 Pro for the same tasks, contributing to longer battery life in devices powered by this chip. This is crucial for users who rely on their smartphones throughout the day without frequent charging.

In comparison, while Samsung and Google have made strides in energy efficiency, the A18 Pro’s advancements set a new benchmark in this area.

The Real Power Will Show Up in Third-Party Apps

Today, the dated App Store model is under constant regulatory attack. Meanwhile, users can accomplish a lot of tasks with fairly simple questions to an AI assistant like ChatGPT.

Proponents believe AI could become the preferred way we’ll search for answers, be productive at work, and experiment with creativity. Where does that leave the world of apps, and the growing services revenue (more than $6 billion last quarter) they generate for Apple?

The answer cuts to the core of Apple’s AI strategy.

Apple Intelligence itself only offers a small set of capabilities out-of-the-box, like writing helpers, summarization tools, generative art, and other baseline offerings.

But earlier this year at its WWDC in June, Apple presented new features that will allow developers’ apps to connect more deeply with both Siri and Apple Intelligence.

That’s already an upgrade from the basic functionality today’s Siri offers, but it doesn’t end there. Apple is also providing developers with tools to use Apple Intelligence in their own apps.

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