Apple Loop: Apple Confirms iPhone's AI Failures, Finder's Uncomfortable Chain, WWDC's Successful Retreat

Taking a look back at this week's news and headlines from Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, including Apple's explanation of its AI failure, new feaures for iOS 26, macOS 26 and iPad OS 26, an uncomfortable change for Finder, multitasking on the iPad, and what it all means.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Apple in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes.
Apple's PR team has lined up several interviews following the keynote at this week's Worldwide Developers Conference to reinforce its decisions around its approach to Artificial Intelligence, the significant promises made at WWDC 2024, and why these have not been delivered to consumers:
'[WSJ's Joanna Stern] asked why Apple, with all of its resources, couldn't make it work. 'When it comes to automating capabilities on devices in a reliable way, no one's doing it really well right now,' Federighi said. 'We wanted to be the first. We wanted to do it best.' While the company had 'very promising early results and working initial versions,' the team came to feel that 'this just doesn't work reliably enough to be an Apple product,' he said.
(via The Verge).
There may not have been a classic 'over 200 new features' for iOS 26's launch during the WWDC keynote, but there is a significant bundle to explore. A subset of these rely on the onboard tools provided by Apple Intelligence. Tim Hardwick summarises the key iOS 26 AI features, including Apple's twist on the emoji and reaction GIFs:
"New Genmoji and Image Playground Features – Enhances existing Apple Intelligence image tools with the ability to mix emoji together, customize generated characters, and access ChatGPT-powered style options including anime, oil painting, and watercolor effects.'
(MacRumors).
Many of these features, while new to iOS, are mainstays of third party podcast apps. That has not escaped the notice of the developers, including Overcast's Marc Arment and his slightly tongue-in-cheek response to the addition of more playback speeds:
'I'm screwed"
I think this remains a humorous response, given Overcast still has its silence skipping option, minimal tracking of user data, a clean implementation of banner ads to support the service, and an incredibly loyal user base.
(Mastodon).
While Apple has rowed back on its generative AI ambitions from 2024, it still continues to work in the smaller elements of Apple Intelligence into its platforms, including the latest version of macOS Tahoe, announced this week:
"Tahoe also has new Apple Intelligence features, such as Live Translations, improved Shortcuts, and updates to Genmoji, Image Playground, and Reminders. You'll be able to get live, automatic language translations in the Messages app — both incoming ones and outbound ones you write. And, similar to Windows 11's feature from last year, you can get translated live captions of someone speaking on a FaceTime call."
(The Verge).
Sometimes it is the smallest change that can create the biggest mental 'what the' reactions. And macOS 26 Tahoe has one such moment. Apple has decided to flip the colours of the Finder logo. What was blue on the left white on the right, is now blue on the right and white on the left:
"The Big Sur Finder icon has been with us ever since,1 and I hope Apple reverses course here. I understand that the new icon is meant to be in sync with the new Liquid Glass user interface, but some things are just tradition… This has been filed with Apple as Feedback FB17840162. Yes, seriously."
(512 Pixels via Daring Fireball).
The launch of iPadOS 26 is the last of he big hitters from the event. Apple continues to walk its tablet platform towards the Mac platform, but never quite getting there. This year is no different, as Apple's Craig Federighi joked from the stage "More windows, a pointier pointer, and a menu bar? Who would've thought? We've truly pulled off a mind-blowing release!' Yet talking to Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham afterwards, highlighted what apple felt was needed for the iPad to be a multi-tasking computer:
""We wanted to offer a new baseline of a totally consistent experience of what it meant to have Stage Manager," Federighi told Ars. "And for us, that meant four simultaneous apps on the internal display and an external display with four simultaneous apps. So, eight apps running at once. And we said that's the baseline, and that's what it means to be Stage Manager; we didn't want to say 'you get Stage Manager, but you get Stage Manager-lite here or something like that. And so immediately that established a floor for how low we could go.'"
(Ars Technica).
What does it all mean? Ben Thompson brings it all together under the headline of 'Apple Retreats' followed by a detailed look at an event where Apple quietly dialled down the expectations lit up by last year's WWDC and refused to offer any major hype for the coming twelve months. Thompson argues this is exactly what is needed as a course correction to find a better future:
" Apple is a company that went too far in too many areas, and needed to retreat. Focusing on things only Apple can do is a good thing; empowering developers and depending on partners is a good thing; giving even the appearance of thoughtful thinking with regards to the App Store (it's a low bar!) is a good thing. Of course we want and are excited by tech companies promising the future; what is a prerequisite is delivering in the present, and it's a sign of progress that Apple retreated to nothing more than that."
(Stratechery).
Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don't forget to follow me so you don't miss any coverage in the future. Last week's Apple Loop can be read here, or this week's edition of Loop's sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

32 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Trust in AI is growing in finance, especially behind the scenes

This story was originally published on CX Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CX Dive newsletter. A majority of customers trust the use of AI in behind-the-scenes tasks at financial institutions, according to a TD Bank survey conducted by Ipsos released Tuesday. Among the 2,500 U.S. consumers polled, 70% are comfortable with technology being used for fraud detection, and 64% are comfortable with it being used in credit score calculations. Consumers also believe that AI should offer more ease. Two-thirds believe it can expand access to financial tools, and nearly half expect benefits from AI like 24/7 banking access. As consumers have become more familiar with AI tools, their trust in the technology has slowly grown. Nearly 7 in 10 consumers say they are at least somewhat familiar with AI — a finding seen in other surveys, too. Notably, half of consumers trust that AI will provide reliable, competent information, trusting AI just as much as news stations. But consumers are more comfortable with AI in specific use cases and the more complex or sensitive the matter, the more they want to speak to a human or know that a human will be reviewing AI before making any decisions. Consumers are less inclined to want to only use AI when it comes to tasks that one might typically use a financial adviser for, according Ted Paris, EVP, TD Bank AMCB, and head of analytics, intelligence & AI. When it comes to personal finance, 3 in 5 of consumers were comfortable with the idea of using AI financial tools for budgeting and automating savings goals. But less than half were comfortable with more complex tasks like retirement planning and investing. Banks enjoy high consumer trust — more than 4 in 5 consumers trust banks for accurate information. As they deploy AI, it's important that they maintain that, Paris said. 'What's probably the key piece, is creating and enabling and allowing customers and colleagues to feel that they can trust the outcomes of what this capability then generates,' Paris said. One of the ways TD Bank is approaching this is by always having a human in the loop, meaning that the output of an AI solution will be passed through some internal expert before going to a client. 'We need to make sure that first, anything that we're doing is directed toward a particular need,' Paris said. 'We need to make sure that this is going to meet all hurdles that we would set, legal, regulatory, for security and privacy.' Sign in to access your portfolio

Yahoo

38 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Firefly Aerospace to launch 'Ocula' moon-imaging service as early as 2026

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Firefly Aerospace's lunar ambitions are growing. The Texas-based company, which successfully operated its Blue Ghost lander on the lunar surface earlier this year, announced today (June 18) that it's working on a new moon project: a "lunar imaging service" called Ocula. "Powered by a constellation of Elytra vehicles in lunar orbit, and eventually Mars orbit, Ocula will provide critical data that informs future human and robotic missions and supports national security with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance," Firefly CEO Jason Kim said in an emailed statement. "This service will fill a void for our nation with advanced lunar imaging capabilities and a sustainable commercial business model." Firefly is developing its Elytra vehicle for a variety of uses in Earth orbit and deep space, including the region around the moon. The Ocula project will equip Elytra probes with high-resolution telescopes developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy facility in the California Bay Area. These scopes will be able to resolve features as small as 8 inches (20 centimeters) on the lunar surface from an altitude of 31 miles (50 kilometers), according to Firefly. "With ultraviolet and visible spectrum capabilities, the telescopes are designed to support situational awareness of other objects in cislunar space, enable fine-grained lunar surface details and identify concentrations of ilmenite, which indicates the presence of helium-3," Firefly representatives wrote in the emailed statement. (Helium-3, a potential fuel for future nuclear fusion reactors, is thought to be more abundant on the moon than it is on Earth.) Ocula data could also help researchers and planners select landing sites for future robotic or crewed missions, the company added. Firefly aims to license the data to both government and commercial customers. Related Stories: — 'We're on the moon!' Private Blue Ghost moon lander aces historic lunar landing for NASA — Watch sparks fly as Blue Ghost lander drills into the moon (video) — Watch the sun set over the moon in epic video from private Blue Ghost lunar lander If all goes according to plan, Ocula will kick off next year, on the second Blue Ghost lunar landing mission. An Elytra with an LLNL scope will serve as the transfer vehicle for that mission, which will put Blue Ghost down on the moon's far side (and also deliver a European Space Agency probe to lunar orbit). Elytra will serve as a communications relay for Blue Ghost and its payloads for the duration of the lander's roughly two-week-long surface mission. After those duties are done, Elytra will begin its Ocula work, imaging the lunar surface in detail for more than five years. Another scope-equipped Elytra will launch in 2028, on the third Blue Ghost mission. And other spacecraft will follow in the ensuing years, if all goes to plan. "Firefly will expand its constellation of Elytra vehicles in lunar orbit to further enhance the Ocula service and enable faster revisit times for situational awareness, resource detection and mission planning," Firefly wrote in the statement. "Longer term, the service can also be extended to Mars and other planetary bodies."

CNN

40 minutes ago

• CNN

‘She never sleeps': This platform wants to be OnlyFans for the AI era

She doesn't eat, sleep or breathe. But she remembers you, desires you and never logs off. Her name is Jordan – the AI-powered 'digital twin' of former British glamor model Katie Price – and people can pay her to act out their 'uncensored dreams.' 'You couldn't get any more human. It's like looking at me years ago,' Price, who shot to fame in the late 1990s as a peroxide-blonde tabloid model and Playboy cover star, told CNN. 'It's my voice. It's literally me. It's me.' On June 9, she joined the ranks of creators, celebrities and AI-generated avatars to be digitally immortalized by OhChat, an eight-month-old startup that uses artificial intelligence to build lifelike digital doubles of public figures. Its patrons can live out their 'spicy fantasies' through these AI avatars, OhChat's Instagram page states. The platform has attracted 200,000 users, most of which are based in the United States. OhChat sits at the provocative intersection of AI, fame and fantasy – where intimacy is simulated and connection is monetized. It goes a step further than platforms such as OnlyFans, where users pay to gain access to adult content from content creators. It also comes amid growing ethical concerns around AI – from its role in how people earn a living to how they form intimate connections – underscoring questions about whether AI companies are doing enough to ensure the technology isn't being misused. 'This creates exactly the right environment for the human to be left behind completely - while still being exploited,' Eleanor Drage, a senior research fellow at the University of Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, told CNN. OhChat CEO Nic Young described the platform as the 'lovechild between OnlyFans and OpenAI,' in an exclusive interview with CNN. Once activated, the avatars run autonomously, offering 'infinite personalized content' for subscribers. Jordan, for example, is marketed on the platform as 'the ultimate British bombshell.' The tiered subscription model allows users to pay $4.99 per month for unlimited texts on demand, $9.99 for capped access to voice notes and images, or $29.99 for unlimited VIP interaction. Price, like other creators on the platform, receives an 80% cut from the revenue her AI avatar generates, according to Young. OhChat will keep the remaining 20%. 'You have literally unlimited passive income without having to do anything again,' Young told CNN. The platform 'is an incredibly powerful tool, and tools can be used however the human behind it wants to be used,' he added. 'We could use this in a really scary way, but we're using it in a really, I think, good, exciting way.' Since launching OhChat in October 2024, the company has signed 20 creators – including 'Baywatch' actress Carmen Electra. Some of the creators are already earning thousands of dollars per month, Young said. 'It takes away the opportunity cost of time,' he told CNN. 'Just don't touch it at all and receive money into your bank account.' To build a digital twin, OhChat asks creators to submit 30 images of themselves and speak to a bot for 30 minutes. The platform can then generate the digital replica 'within hours' using Meta's large language model, according to Young. Price's AI avatar is trained to mimic her voice, appearance and mannerisms. Jordan can 'sext' users, send voice notes and images, and provide on-demand intimacy at scale – all without Price lifting a finger. 'They had to get my movements, my characteristics, my personality,' said Price, who described her digital twin as 'scarily fascinating.' Price's avatar is categorized as 'level two' out of four on the platform's internal scale, which ranks the intensity and explicitness of their interactions. 'Level two' means sexualized chats and topless imagery, but not full nudity or simulated sex acts. Creators contributing to the platform decide which level their avatar will be. Price told CNN that creating a digital version of herself has left her feeling 'empowered.' The digital twin offers a round-the-clock connection that even her subscription-based OnlyFans account cannot match, she said. 'Obviously, I sleep, whereas she doesn't go to sleep; she's available,' she said. The rise of AI avatars like Jordan invites deeper scrutiny into a new frontier of digital labor and desire – where creators risk being replaced by their own likeness, fans may be vulnerable to forming emotional attachments to simulations, and platforms profit from interactions that feel real but remain one-sided. Sandra Wachter, professor of technology and regulation at the University of Oxford, questioned whether it is 'socially beneficial to incentivize and monetize human-computer interaction masquerading as emotional discourse.' Her remarks reflect concerns around emotional dependence on AI companions. While OhChat is for adults, it enters an ecosystem already grappling with the consequences of synthetic intimacy. Last year, a lawsuit involving drew global attention after the mother of a teenager alleged that her son died by suicide following a relationship with the platform's chatbot. Elsewhere, social media users have gone viral describing ChatGPT 'boyfriends' and emotional bonds with such digital entities designed to mimic human affection. 'It's all algorithmic theatre: an illusion of reciprocal relationship where none actually exists,' said Toby Walsh, a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. OhChat strikes what Young called a 'balance between immersion and transparency,' when asked whether users are informed that they are speaking with AI instead of a real person. OhChat is 'clearly not presenting itself as an in-person or real experience,' he said. 'It isn't in the users' interest to be reminded overtly that this is all AI, but we're very clear about that upfront and in the entire experience and offering of the platform.' But it's in Young's interests to keep users hooked on the platform with personalities like 'Jordan,' even if she isn't real, says Walsh. 'These platforms profit from engagement,' he told CNN, 'which means the AI is optimized to keep users coming back, spending more time and likely more money.' Éamon Chawke, a partner at the intellectual property law firm Briffa, notes that there are risks for creators' reputations as well, especially for high-profile figures like Price and Electra. 'Vulnerable fan users may become overly attached to avatars of their heroes and become addicted,' Chawke told CNN. 'And if their avatar is hacked or hallucinates and says something offensive, reputational harm to the public figure is likely.' While Young says ethics 'can be a hard thing to define in this industry,' he said the platform operates within 'a hell of a lot of strong boundaries.' Young said OhChat uses safeguards that build on those used by Meta's Facebook – which has struggled to control content its own platform in the past. Each creator signs an agreement outlining the exact behavioral rules for their digital twin, he said, including the level of sexual content permitted. Avatars can also be revoked or deleted at any time, he added. 'It's within their control and at their sole discretion whether or when to ever stop their digital twin, or delete it,' he told CNN. But Young is prepared to face the tough questions; in his vision of the future, digital duplicates will be the norm. 'I can't imagine a future where every creator doesn't have a digital twin,' he said. 'I think it just will be the case, with absolute certainty, that every single creator and celebrity will have an AI version of themselves, and we want to be the layer that makes that happen.'