The expectation, of course, is that Apple will use this event to announce the iPhone 16 line, which is rumored to bring the usual updates to the iPhone’s camera system, a new line of processors, and external design tweaks (including some new colors). We may also see updates to the Apple Watch line, new AirPods, and, of course, official release information for iOS/iPadOS 18 as well as the company’s other software updates.
It could refer to a glowing Apple logo on the back of the iPhone, which is highly unlikely. It could also refer to the new Siri interface, which is far more probable given the Apple Intelligence-inspired color scheme. But that’s not a feature exclusive to the iPhone 16 so it would be strange to use it as a unique feature of the latest iPhone—especially one that’s not coming for several weeks after the phone arrives. Maybe it has nothing to do with the iPhone at all.
James Cuda, CEO of the creativity app Procreate, shocked the creative and technology worlds last week when he announced on X that his company was never going to use generative artificial intelligence in its products. Immediately, the two communities took sides.
“The tech people said this was going to age like milk; that we were going in the wrong direction, and we were probably gonna change our mind,” Cuda tells me over a videoconference from his home in Tasmania.
Creative people, however, felt quite different: every comment Cuda could find on the internet was 100% positive, he says. “There was an overwhelming sentiment of relief within the creative community, because I think we were the first in the creative tools industry to stand up and say, ‘You know what, we don’t think this is a good idea.’”
Image manipulation techniques and other methods of fakery have existed for close to 200 years — almost as long as photography itself. (Cases in point: 19th-century spirit photography and the Cottingley Fairies.) But the skill requirements and time investment needed to make those changes are why we don’t think to inspect every photo we see. Manipulations were rare and unexpected for most of photography’s history. But the simplicity and scale of AI on smartphones will mean any bozo can churn out manipulative images at a frequency and scale we’ve never experienced before. It should be obvious why that’s alarming.
Niantic is releasing a new version of its Scaniverse app to let users capture objects around them with more details. Scaniverse 4 will allow users to capture places and objects in 3D through a Gaussian splatting technique, which captures more data points about an object for accurate and rich representation with faster rendering.
Mozilla will soon remove its telemetry service Adjust from the Android and iOS versions of browsers Firefox and Firefox Focus. It appeared that the developer was collecting data on the effectiveness of Firefox ad campaigns without disclosing that.
Apple announced Monday that it will replace Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri on Jan. 1 with current Apple insider Kevan Parekh.
Maestri will continue to lead teams focusing on IT, security and real estate development, Apple said.
And I predict there is nothing glow-y about the new iPhones. It's just an event marketing line.
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Thanks for reading.