Technology is consistently entertaining new crazes. Some examples include blockchain, subscription juicers, netbooks, 3D televisions, hyperloop, and "hoverboards", just to name a handful of examples. All of these were going to be "the next big thing", but none of these have panned out as the inventors intended.
There has been a term bandied about that people think may be the end-all for computers. Said term is "Artificial Intelligence", or "AI". The term "AI" can mean a variety of different things, depending on whom you ask. However, when most use the term AI, what they are expecting is a fully conscious and sentient entity that can think, act, and rationalize as a human would. This is called "Artificial General Intelligence". Today's technology is nowhere even close to being able to come to this reality. It is not yet known whether or not Artificial Intelligence will actually live up to its ultimate expectations.
Apple is not known for being jumping on bandwagons and being the first to create new categories of technology; they typically leave that to others. However, if there is a technology that they can put their own spin on, they might do so. At their World Wide Developer Conference 24, they introduced one of these types of technologies, called "Apple Intelligence".
Apple Intelligence is not a single item; in fact, it goes against the grain of other AI assistants and only works on your data. Apple Intelligence consists of a variety of tools to help you accomplish a specific task. When introduced, Apple indicated that the initial features of Apple Intelligence would be released over the course of the iOS/iPad 18 and macOS Sequoia releases.
The items that comprise Apple Intelligence include: Writing Tools, Image Generation, and Personalized Requests. Initially, Apple wanted to have the first items available with iOS 18; however, during the beta, Apple realized that the features would not be far enough along for an initial iOS/iPadOS 18.0 and macOS Sequoia (15.0) release, so they were pushed to iOS/iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1.
Not every device that can run iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1 is able to support Apple Intelligence. To be able to run Apple Intelligence you need to have one of the following devices:
iPhone 16/Plus (A18)
iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max (A18 Pro)
iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max (A17 Pro)
iPad mini (A17 Pro or later)
iPad Air (M1 or later)
iPad Pro (M1 or later)
Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later)
The reason that these devices are the minimum is a combination of needing 8GB of memory, as well as a neural engine.
This article is part of an on-going series that covers the features of Apple Intelligence, as they become available. This article focuses on the Apple Intelligence feature called “Clean Up".
Photo Editing History
There is an old adage that goes "a picture is worth 1000 words", however the original quote is by newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane, who said "Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words". The quote is from 1911, back when newspapers were the prime method of obtaining news and with the limited amount of space, you could easily put a picture in place of 1000 words. The sentiment of either quote is that it would take about a thousand words to adequately describe a scene, when a single photo would be able to convey the same thing.
Fast forward to today and everything has changed. Written text is still important, but it has been supplanted not only by photos, but also by video. We are nearly two centuries from when the first photograph, "View from the Window at Le Gras" was taken. We have come a long, long way from then. Today's technology can easily take multiple pictures per second when you are using burst mode on a camera.
When film cameras became popular, you would take a photo in the hopes that you would get a usable photo. You would not know right away, because you would need to send your film off to be developed and processed. Once the film was processed, there was typically not a lot that you could do with the photo. That is not to say that some people did not manipulate photos, because of course they did, but it was a skill and not something easily accomplished.
Nearly 35 years ago, there was a new piece of software released. That software is called Photoshop. It is quite likely that you have heard of Photoshop, but in case you have not, Photoshop is software created by Adobe that will allow you to not only create images, but also the ability to edit photos. It is this latter functionality that many use the software for. Photoshop is not an easy piece of software to use, at least not for the average user. There are millions who are quite proficient with the software (the author of this post is absolutely not one of them).
While it is no longer necessary to hope that you got a good photo, there may still be instances when you may want to make some modifications to a photo, but you have the skills to use an app like Photoshop. For these situations, you can use a feature within Photos called "Clean Up".
Clean Up
Clean Up is a new tool that can be used to remove various items from a photo. The Clean Up tool can be found within the editing functions of the Photos app. To access the Clean Up tools, perform the following steps:
Open the Photos app.
Locate the photo that you want to use Clean Up on.
Click on the "Edit" button.
Click on the "Clean Up" button to bring up the Clean Up tools.
Cleanup 'preparing' within Photos
Once you bring up a photo, you will have a sidebar that says "Clean Up". Here you will have a single option: the size of the brush. You can adjust the size of the brush by clicking and dragging along the slider. The further right you go, the bigger the brush.
When you bring up a photo for editing, you may notice some items flashing. These flashing objects indicate what Photos thinks you may want to remove. Sometimes, it is correct; other times, it may not be. Let us look at an example.
In the photo below, you will see that it contains a car, some garbage cans, a white car, and a folded chair. In the screenshot, you will see that the garbage cans and car are automatically selected.
Highlighted garbage cans in Cleanup within Photos
If you double-click on any of the highlighted items, they will be removed and their background will be replaced. Here is an example of what that might look like.
-- INSERT SCREENSHOT OF GARBAGE CANS "CLEANED UP" --
Screenshot after the garbage cans were removed
Now, you may initially think "Oh, that's pretty good", and at first blush it might be. However, if you look at it closer, it does not work all that well. As an example, the grass has been expanded onto the street. At the same time, the street has been expanded onto the grass. This is not accurate at all.
The thing that I think is the most aggravating is the fact that you can easily see that there is a curb that is circling around behind the garbage cans, yet it is completely removed from the area that you can easily see. It is somewhat understandable that the area behind the garbage cans, that is not seen, is filled in improperly, but the area that is shown should not really be touched.
Let us look at another example.
In this second photo, you can see a squirrel just chilling on the railing of a deck. Let us say that you want to remove the backing of the chair in the lower portion of the photo. It is the area that is highlighted.
Screenshot of a Squirrel with the chair highlighted
Now, if you remove the chair, you will get something like this:
Screenshot of a Squirrel with the chair removed
This is an infinitely better photo. The stiles of the railing on the deck are correct, and it does look very close to what you might expect. The only item that I noticed was that the filled-in area along the far right of the photo is not correct. However, it does make sense given that it does not have any information to fill in that area, besides the dirt at the top of the railing.
Closing Thoughts on Clean Up
Clean Up is a good idea and a tool that can provide mixed results. In some cases, the results are good and acceptable. However, there are also those instances where it does not work all that well. Ultimately, it depends on the image and what you are trying to clean up as to whether the proper item(s) will be removed. Hopefully, Apple is able to improve the way that this functionality works and have it function as expected.
Be sure to check out all of the other articles in the series:
Here is the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro availability for the Thursday, October 31st, 2024. There are a handful of changes, but none for Apple.
Highlight of Changes
For Apple, there are no changes.
For AT&T, 512GB Pink iPhone 16 Plus has improved to November 5th.
For T-Mobile, there are a number of changes. The iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max changes are to account for the weekend. The iPhone 16/Plus are improvements in availability.
For Verizon, The 1TB Black Titanium iPhone 16 Pro Max is now "Out of Stock".
Technology is consistently entertaining new crazes. Some examples include blockchain, subscription juicers, netbooks, 3D televisions, hyperloop, and "hoverboards", just to name a handful of examples. All of these were going to be "the next big thing", but none of these have panned out as the inventors intended.
There has been a term bandied about that people think may be the end-all for computers. Said term is "Artificial Intelligence", or "AI". The term "AI" can mean a variety of different things, depending on whom you ask. However, when most use the term AI, what they are expecting is a fully conscious and sentient entity that can think, act, and rationalize as a human would. This is called "Artificial General Intelligence". Today's technology is nowhere even close to being able to come to this reality. It is not yet known whether or not Artificial Intelligence will actually live up to its ultimate expectations.
Apple is not known for being jumping on bandwagons and being the first to create new categories of technology; they typically leave that to others. However, if there is a technology that they can put their own spin on, they might do so. At their World Wide Developer Conference 24, they introduced one of these types of technologies, called "Apple Intelligence".
Apple Intelligence is not a single item; in fact, it goes against the grain of other AI assistants and only works on your data. Apple Intelligence consists of a variety of tools to help you accomplish a specific task. When introduced, Apple indicated that the initial features of Apple Intelligence would be released over the course of the iOS/iPad 18 and macOS Sequoia releases.
The items that comprise Apple Intelligence include: Writing Tools, Image Generation, and Personalized Requests. Initially, Apple wanted to have the first items available with iOS 18; however, during the beta, Apple realized that the features would not be far enough along for an initial iOS/iPadOS 18.0 and macOS Sequoia (15.0) release, so they were pushed to iOS/iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1.
Not every device that can run iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1 is able to support Apple Intelligence. To be able to run Apple Intelligence you need to have one of the following devices:
iPhone 16/Plus (A18)
iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max (A18 Pro)
iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max (A17 Pro)
iPad mini (A17 Pro or later)
iPad Air (M1 or later)
iPad Pro (M1 or later)
Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later)
The reason that these devices are the minimum is a combination of needing 8GB of memory, as well as a neural engine.
This article is part of an on-going series that covers the features of Apple Intelligence, as they become available. This article focuses on the Apple Intelligence feature called "Writing Tools".
Writing Tools
As you might have been able to surmise, the written word is one of the most common forms of communication. This may have started out as handwritten, but now, most of today's writing is in electronic form. Often, this is via a messaging service, like SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, or a countless number of other messaging services. These work well for shorter messages, but for longer forms of work, there are other applications. One example is a word processor. Word Processing applications have been around since the mid-1970s and have come a long way since then.
When modern computers first came about, they were quite limited and truly for the hobbyists. However, as they gained traction within enterprises, their utility became more apparent. The first word processing software was called "Electric Pencil” and first went on sale in 1976. The first popular word processing application was "WordStar" created by MicroPro International.
WordStar became the market leader but was not the only word processing application available. In the mid-1980s, WordPerfect started gaining traction and became quite popular during the 1980s and 90s. Of course, as you might have surmised, WordPerfect had challengers, specifically one, who still dominates the market today, that is, of course, Microsoft Word.
If you were to attempt to create a word processor today, you would have a lot of work ahead of you. This is not just because it would be a difficult task, because it would be, but also because of the sheer number of features that one would expect. Some of these features you might be able to get right from the operating system, like printing, formatting (bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, etc.), and open/save dialog boxes. However, the remaining feature would be needed. One of those features would be spelling and grammar, which are staple features of any word processing application.
Spelling correction, along with autocorrect and grammar checking, has been integrated into word processors since 1992, when Microsoft added it to Microsoft Word. While Microsoft Word was the prominent word processing app on the Mac, it is not the only one. Apple introduced its own word processor as part of the iLife suite. This app is called Pages.
Pages has become an ever-present application that works across Apple's platforms, including macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS. As you might expect, Pages does include the ability to perform spelling and grammar checking. These work quite well, but this may not cover all situations. For other situations, the new "Writing Tools" may become useful. Let us look at those next.
Writing Tools is a set of functions that allows you to perform a number of actions. These actions include:
Proofreading
Rewriting
Summarization
Key Points
List Creation
Table Creation
Writing Tools is available system-wide in any application that supports Apple's standard controls. This is a boon in that the features are available across the operating systems. This means that you can easily use the features not only in Apple's own apps, but also in third-party apps. Before we dive into each function, let us look at how to access Writing Tools.
Invoking Writing
The way that you invoke Writing Tools is quite straightforward. Simply perform the following steps:
Select the block of text you want to use Writing Tools on.
Right-click on the text.
Hover over the "Writing Tools" menu option. Alternatively,
Select the tool that you want to use.
Various options within Writing Tools on macOS Sequoia
Let us look at each of the tools in turn, starting with Proofreading.
Proofreading
When you select the "Proofread", the highlighted text will be checked for both spelling and grammar. When the check is complete, there will be a popup that will show you the changes that have been made, with said changes underlined in red. The popup toolbar will also have a button with three lines and a left arrow. This button will allow you to easily switch between the original text and the replaced text.
The total number of changes will be shown in a toolbar, so you know whether or not anything has been changed. Along with this, you can also switch between the individual changes, which will allow you to review each change individually. If you like the changes, you can click on the "Done" button; however, if you do not like the changes, you can click on the "Revert" button, and the changed text will be reverted.
Writing Styles
There may be occasions when you want to adjust the tone of some text. This could be because your writing style is a bit relaxed and you need something a bit more professional, or it could be that you think the text needs to be a bit more user-friendly. There is a feature designed just for this type of situation. You can convert text into three different styles: Friendly, Professional, or Concise.
The manner in which this is accomplished is similar to using Writing Tools; you perform the following steps:
Select the block of text that you want to convert.
Right-click on the text.
Select the "Writing Tools" menu item.
Select the writing style you want to use.
Just like Proofreading, you will be able to see the changes made and flip back and forth between the versions. Writing Tools is able to perform a few more actions, like List Creation.
Create a List
Being able to proofread and change the writing style of the text is quite useful. Yet, there may be times when you wish to be able to change some text around. As an example, you may have some steps that you initially thought might be concise enough to have in a paragraph, but then realize it would be better to have it as a numbered list. Let us say that you have the following text as instructions:
Select the text you want to convert, right-click on the text to bring up the menus, click on the "Writing Tools" menu item, select the "Make List" option.
This would be easy enough to follow, but it would look better as a numbered list. To accomplish this, you can actually use the above steps and it should result in something like this:
Select the text
Right-click on the text
Bring up the menus
Click on "Writing Tools"
Select "Make List"
Now, this is not exactly what was intended. Therefore, you would need to convert it to a numbered list. If you use Notes, this is easy enough to accomplish by going to "Format" -> "Numbered List", and it will be converted for you. This is currently a limitation of Apple Intelligence, it can only make bulleted lists. I hope that there will be a future option to select the type of list to create.
Summarization
When you create a large body of text you may also want to be able to quickly provide a brief overview. You can easily write out a brief summary. This approach might work well for a couple of pages, but if you have a 10-page item, it might be nicer to have it summarized for you. This is entirely possible to do with Writing Tools. To summarize some text, perform the following steps:
Select the text you want to summarize.
Right-click on the text to bring up the menu.
Select the "Writing Tools" menu item.
Select "Summarize".
I performed a test using my introduction article about Apple Intelligence. That article is just over 4700 words and 228 paragraphs. Apple Intelligence reduced the entire article down to the following:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) aims to create machines that can think and act like humans, but current technology is far from achieving this. AI systems use neural networks to process data and make decisions, with training methods like supervised and reinforcement learning helping them learn and improve. Despite its potential, AI has yet to meet the idealistic depiction of fully conscious machines, and its use cases vary from automated cleaning to image generation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a tool that can be used for both positive and negative purposes. Large Language Models (LLMs) and Image Generators are two examples of AI technologies that can be used for various tasks, including generating text and images. Apple has been working on its own AI technologies, known as Apple Intelligence, which prioritizes privacy by processing requests on-device or on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute platform.
Apple’s Private Cloud Compute service protects user data through target diffusion, which anonymizes requests and prevents replay attacks. Apple Intelligence, powered by Private Cloud Compute, will be available on select devices starting in late 2024, with some features not available until 2025.
Apple Intelligence requires Apple Silicon Macs, iPads with M1 or newer, and iPhones 15 Pro or Pro Max or newer.
Given everything that I wrote in that article, I do not think that the summary is all that good. It is missing some key information, but then again, maybe it is that I would choose a different set of summary text.
Table Creation
From time to time, you may have some data in a format that would look better in a table. Here is an example of some data that was used within my iPhone 16 Pro Max review.
Device Chip CPU Single Core CPU Multi-Core GPU (Metal) iPhone 16 Pro Max (2024) A18 Pro 3497 8581 32822 12.9-inch iPad Pro (2024) M4 3585 12603 55769 iPhone 15 Pro Max (2023) A17 Pro 2749 6713 27661 14-inch MacBook Pro (2023) M2 Max 2707 15148 127761 Mac Studio (2022) M1 Max 2439 12825 103224 6th generation iPad (2021) A15 Bionic 2157 5285 20183 Mac mini (2020) M1 2394 8810 34575
If I attempted to create a table from the data, this is what was previewed:
Completely botched conversion of the above data to a table
As you can see, Apple Intelligence completely missed the mark. It added a column that was not present, the header row seemed to be duplicated, and the first row of data was ignored. When it was not formatted properly, I thought that maybe replacing the tabs with commas might allow it to be formatted properly, but it was the same result.
I then thought that maybe there were too many rows, so I opted to only use three rows of data. When I did that, I got the following popup:
Unsupported language in Writing Tools
The fact that the table could not be created properly, and that it does not seem to understand that the text I have is in English, means that, at least as of this writing, the "Make Table" functionality is not helpful or useful in any way.
---
Closing Thoughts on Writing Tools
The new Apple Intelligence Writing Tools can be useful in some situations, but not all. If you need to proofread a block of text, Writing Tools will accomplish the task. The same goes for making a list, provided that you want a bulleted list, and not a numbered one.
Writing Tools is able to rewrite a block of text using one of three styles, friendly, professional, or concise, depending on your needs.
Writing Tools is available in any application that uses Apple's standard controls, like Pages, Notes, and even Xcode. However, it is not limited to Apple's own apps; any third-party app that uses a text field should also have access to Writing Tools.
Apple Intelligence should be available on iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sierra 15.1, on any device that has an M1, or newer, as well as the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max, iPhone 16/Plus/Pro/Pro Max.
Be sure to check out all of the other articles in the series:
Today Apple has unveiled the final new release related to the Mac, this time the MacBook Pro. As expected the new MacBook Pros have the M4, M4 Pro, and the newly unveiled M4 Max.
Display and Camera
At the top of the display is the notch and within the notch is the camera. There is a new 12 Megapixel Center Stage camera. Center Stage is intended to keep you and everyone else around you in frame as much as possible. This camera also supports Desk View, so you can display what is happening on your physical desktop while in a FaceTime call.
The display on the MacBook Pro is a Liquid Retina XDR display. It has always come with a glossy finish, but that now changes. There is now a Nano Texture option. Much like the other Nano Texture displays, this is designed to reduce glare in bright light situations. This will cost an extra $150, but if you are frequently in areas with bright light, it might be worth looking at.
M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max
Logos for the M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max
The MacBook Pros are powered by Apple Silicon and can be configured with three different processors, the M4, the M4 Pro, and the M4 Max. There are a few configuration options for each model.
M4
The M4 comes in 10-Core CPU and 10-Core GPU model. This can be configured with 16GB, 24GB, or 32GB of memory. The base model comes with 512GB of storage and this can be configured with either 1TB or 2TB of storage. The maximum memory bandwidth for the M4 is 120 gigabits per second.
According to Apple, the MacBook Pro with M4 delivers:
- Up to 7x faster image processing in Affinity Photo when compared to the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with Core i7, and up to 1.8x faster when compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1.
- Up to 10.9x faster 3D rendering in Blender when compared to the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with Core i7, and up to 3.4x faster when compared to the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with M1.
- Up to 9.8x faster scene edit detection in Adobe Premiere Pro when compared to the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with Core i7, and up to 1.7x faster when compared to the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with M1.
M4 Pro
The M4 Pro comes in two variants. The first is a 12-Core CPU, 16-core GPU version or a 14-Core CPU. and a 14-Core CPU with a 20-Core GPU version. Both models come with 24GB of unified memory, and can be configured with 48GB. The M4 Pro models come with 512GB of storage, and can be configured with 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB of storage. The maximum memory bandwidth for the M4 is 273 gigabits per second.
According to Apple, the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro delivers:
- Up to 4x faster scene rendering performance with Maxon Redshift when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with Core i9, and up to 3x faster when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro.
- Up to 5x faster simulation of dynamical systems in MathWorks MATLAB when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with Core i9, and up to 2.2x faster when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro.
- Up to 23.8x faster basecalling for DNA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with Core i9, and up to 1.8x faster when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro.
M4 Max
The M4 Max is a new chip not released until today. Much like the M4 Pro, the M4 Max comes in two variants. The first is a 14-Core CPU with 32-Core GPU version. This can only be configured with 36GB of unified memory. This memory has a maximum bandwidth of 410 gigabits per second, which is nearly 3.5x more memory bandwidth than the M4, and 1.5x more memory than the M4.
The second variant is a 16-Core CPU with a 40-Core GPU. This starts at 48GB of unified memory, but can be configured with 96GB or 128GB. The memory in this model is 546 gigabits per second, which is 4.5x the memory in the M4, 2x that of the M4 Pro, and 1.33x more memory bandwidth than the 14-Core M4 Max version.
Both M4 Max variants come with 1TB of storage, but can be configured for 2TB, 4TB, or even 8TB of storage, depending on needs.
And the MacBook Pro with M4 Max enables:
- Up to 7.8x faster scene rendering performance with Maxon Redshift when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9, and up to 3.5x faster when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max.
- Up to 4.6x faster build performance when compiling code in Xcode when compared to the 16‑inch MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9, and up to 2.2x faster when compared to the 16‑inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max.
- Up to 30.8x faster video processing performance in Topaz Video AI when compared to the 16‑inch MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9, and up to 1.6x faster when compared to the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max.
Connectivity and Ports
Ports on the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4
Similar to the M4 Mac mini, there is a difference in ports with the M4 and the M4 Pro, not in the number, but the USB-C ports. For the M4, you get three Thunderbolt 4 ports, up to 40 Gigabits per second, and the M4 Pro and M4 Max devices come equipped with three Thunderbolt 5 ports up to 120 gigabits per second. This is the same setup as the Mac mini with M4 and M4 Pro.
The number of displays supported varies depending on the M4 version. The M4 and M4 Pro can support up to two external displays up to 6K at 60Hz over Thunderbolt, or one display up to 6K at 60Hz, and one display up to 4K at 144Hz over HDMI. The HDMI is also capable of supporting one display at 8K resolution at 60Hz, or one display 4K at 240Hz, both of these are over HDMI.
The M4 Max can have up to four external displays, three displays up to 6K with 60Hz over Thunderbolt, and one at 4K up to 144Hz on HDMI. Alternatively, you can have two external displays up to 6K resolution at 60Hz, and one external display up to 8K resolution nat 60Hz, or one display up to 4K at 240Hz on the HDMI port.
Along with the Thunderbolt ports, you also get an SDXC card reader, a dedicated HDMI port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Wi-Fi in all models is Wi-Fi 6E and support for Bluetooth 5.3 is also included.
Pricing and Availability
The M4 MacBook Pro comes in the same two sizes of 14-inch and 16-inch. The pricing differs for each model and chip. For the 14-inch you can get an M4 model starting at $1599. The M4 Pro model starts at $1999, and the M4 Max starts at $3199.
The 16-inch starts at $2499 for the M4 Pro with 14-Core CPU, 20-Core GPU, 24GB of unified memory, and 512GB of storage. The 16-inch M4 Max version starts at $3499 for a 14-core CPU with a 32-Core GPU, 36GB of unified memory, and 1TB of storage.
All of the M4-line of MacBook Pros are available to order today and will be available starting November 8th.
Closing Thoughts
The MacBook Pros continue to be the workhorses of the Apple laptops. Many users do a ton of work on these devices and now with M4 processors they should be able to accomplish even more than before. The new M4 Max adds even more horsepower to the laptops and are welcome upgrades. The line up is a bit strange, but for today’s modern Apple, it is makes sense because it is not too dissimilar to the iPhone Pro line of devices. If you have an Intel-based MacBook Pro, now would be a great time to update your MacBook Pro.
Technology is consistently entertaining new crazes. Some examples include blockchain, subscription juicers, netbooks, 3D televisions, hyperloop, and "hoverboards", just to name a handful of examples. All of these were going to be "the next big thing", but none of these have panned out as the inventors intended.
There has been a term bandied about that people think may be the end-all for computers. Said term is "Artificial Intelligence", or "AI". The term "AI" can mean a variety of different things, depending on whom you ask. However, when most use the term AI, what they are expecting is a fully conscious and sentient entity that can think, act, and rationalize as a human would. This is called "Artificial General Intelligence". Today's technology is nowhere even close to being able to come to this reality. It is not yet known whether or not Artificial Intelligence will actually live up to its ultimate expectations.
Apple is not known for being jumping on bandwagons and being the first to create new categories of technology; they typically leave that to others. However, if there is a technology that they can put their own spin on, they might do so. At their World Wide Developer Conference 24, they introduced one of these types of technologies, called "Apple Intelligence".
Apple Intelligence is not a single item; in fact, it goes against the grain of other AI assistants and only works on your data. Apple Intelligence consists of a variety of tools to help you accomplish a specific task. When introduced, Apple indicated that the initial features of Apple Intelligence would be released over the course of the iOS/iPad 18 and macOS Sequoia releases.
The items that comprise Apple Intelligence include: Writing Tools, Image Generation, and Personalized Requests. Initially, Apple wanted to have the first items available with iOS 18; however, during the beta, Apple realized that the features would not be far enough along for an initial iOS/iPadOS 18.0 and macOS Sequoia (15.0) release, so they were pushed to iOS/iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1.
Not every device that can run iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1 is able to support Apple Intelligence. To be able to run Apple Intelligence you need to have one of the following devices:
iPhone 16/Plus (A18)
iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max (A18 Pro)
iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max (A17 Pro)
iPad mini (A17 Pro or later)
iPad Air (M1 or later)
iPad Pro (M1 or later)
Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later)
The reason that these devices are the minimum is a combination of needing 8GB of memory, as well as a neural engine.
This article is part of an on-going series that covers the features of Apple Intelligence, as they become available. This article focuses on the Apple Intelligence feature called "Summarization".
Summarization
Communication is an important part of human society. As humans, we have become quite adept at creating ways of communicating. There are effectively two types of communication: asynchronous communications and synchronous, or real-time, communications. Asynchronous communications could be something like newspapers, magazines, and for something more modern, email, and even social media. Real-time communications can include things like text messages, iMessages, WhatsApp, and Google Chat, just to name a handful.
There are those communications that are more informational and more than likely a one-way. The prime example of this is notifications from an app. This can be a notification about an email, a new podcast episode, or even just a notification about a new post from one of your friends.
With the amount of text that everyone comes across each day, it can easily become overwhelming. For notifications, you can just disable all notifications for an app within the Settings app on iOS and iPadOS, or System Settings on macOS, but this is not always a viable solution depending on your needs.
There are a number of areas where you can get summaries. This includes notifications and email. Let us start with notifications.
Summarizing Notifications
Sometimes, it would be great to be able to get a brief synopsis of the notifications that you have received. Now with Apple Intelligence, you can actually have this occur. Below is the summarized post from Ivory from my friend, Barry:
"Sequoia and Time Machine backups issues, one SSD stopped working, the other slow."
Summarized message in Ivory from Barry
Here is the original text:
"Have you had any issues with Sequoia and Time Machine backups? I have two SSD's that used to alternate backups but one has stopped working and the other takes forever to run the "cleaning up" portion of the backup at the end."
This is a pretty good summary of the original text. When I saw this message, I immediately tapped to see the entire message. This is not the only example of summarization. Here is another example from Overcast:
"No episode today; return on Friday, October 10th; Google's Play Store remedies discussed."
The way that this seems to work is by summarizing the titles of the podcast. In most cases, this might be okay, but this is missing some key details, in particular, which podcast does not have an episode today. Now, later in the day, after additional episodes were downloaded, this was the summary:
"Stratechery discusses Google's Play Store remedies; Rebound Prime episode bootleg available"
As you could have surmised, this is a much better summary of the notifications that I received for the various podcasts I subscribe to.
Now, it should be noted that this is with iOS 18.1, which means that developers do not have access to any sort of application programming interface, or API, for suggesting anything to Apple Intelligence, so this is strictly what Apple's own models think is the proper summary.
Another tidbit to note is that each app will be summarized on its own. Therefore, you will get a different summary for your iMessage conversations, Instagram posts, and Overcast podcast notifications. That is not the only summarization that you can get; you can also get summaries of emails.
Email Summaries
Everyone has received a rather long email, and you may want a short summary of the email. Mail on iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sierra 15.1 will handle this for you automatically. When you view your list of emails, you will see a summary directly below the sender and subject line.
While each email is automatically summarized, you can also get a longer summary within the email message. The way that you can do this is by using the following steps:
Open Mail.
Locate the email message that you would like to summarize.
Scroll up to the top of the email message.
Click on the "Summarize" button.
Once you click on this, Apple Intelligence will then analyze the email message and then provide a summary directly above the email.
Here are three different summaries of Justin Robert Young's "Free Political Newsletter."
From September 30th, 2024: "The article discusses the possibility of an October Surprise in the upcoming election, categorizing potential surprises into four types: policy surprises, opposition dumps, acts of God, and legal surprises. It also highlights James Carville's opinion that swing states are likely to move as a block, rather than splitting evenly."
From October 4th, 2024: "The article discusses the possibility of an October Surprise in the upcoming election, categorizing potential surprises into four types: policy surprises, opposition dumps, acts of God, and legal surprises. It also highlights James Carville's opinion that swing states are likely to move as a block, rather than splitting evenly."
From October 7th, 2024: "Democratic ads focus on healthcare and portray Kamala Harris as caring, while Republican ads portray her as frivolous and unserious. The GOP Senate map is favorable, but the party may not have the funds to play in all the states they could win."
All of these are decent summaries of the email messages. As you might suspect, you can only summarize a single email message at a time. You cannot summarize multiple emails, and this makes sense because the emails could be a variety of different topics. Now, the items above were decent examples, but not all emails are great for summarization. Here is what each of Audible's Daily Deal Emails results in:
"Today's Daily Deal is $2.99 and ends at 11:59 PM PT. Offer is not transferable, cannot be combined with other offers, and sale titles are not eligible for return."
Now, honestly, these are completely useless because the title is never displayed. The reason for this is because the emails from Audible never include the title within the email. Instead, the data is not shown until it is downloaded.
To Preview or Not to Preview
Mail provides you with the ability to control whether or not each message preview should be summarized or not. By default, this feature is enabled, but you can change it if you do not want any previews. The method by which you accomplish this depends on the operating system. You can use the steps below to change the setting.
On macOS
Open the Mail app.
Click on the "Mail" menu item.
Click on Settings.
Click on the "Viewing" tab.
Uncheck "Summarize Message Previews".
On iOS/iPadOS
Open Settings.
Scroll down to "Apps".
Tap on Apps to open up the apps list.
Scroll down to, or search for, Mail.
Tap on Mail to open its settings.
Under Message List, tap the toggle for "Summarize Message Previews".
These are pretty straightforward steps to change whether Mail summarizes message previews within the message list. This is not the only Apple Intelligence item related to Mail. Mail has a couple of other features, including smart replies and priority messages. Let us look at both, starting with Smart Replies.
Smart Replies in Mail
When you receive an email, you may want to write a reply, but may not always be able to come up with the right words. It could be helpful to have an appropriate reply generated for you. This is possible with a new feature called "Smart Replies". Smart Replies are designed to create a reply to an email on your behalf. This is done by looking for any questions within the email and then generating a contextual response.
As an example, I looked at an email that I got from Patreon for an episode of "The Morning Stream" with Scott Johnson and Brian Ibbott. Live listeners generate possible titles during the show, and sometimes topics can also generate titles. Within this particular episode, one of the titles was "Is it too early for a Chicken Big Mac?". The mail app on iOS provided two possible responses within the Quick Type bar, "Yes" and "No". If I clicked on one of these, it would provide an appropriate response.
Smart Reply suggestions for the question "Is it too early for a Big Mac?"
For " Yes", it was "Yes, it is too early for a Chicken Big Mac. I'll have to wait until later in the day to enjoy one." For "No", it created "No, it's never too early for a Chicken Big Mac." For any TMS listeners, the answer is always "No, it's never too early for a Chicken Big Mac". This is just one example of how it might be used. Here is another example.
Recently, I went to a book signing for John Scalzi's Starter Villain at my local bookstore. I received the confirmation for the event, and the mail provided two options for replying.
The first option was "I'll be there", and the generated response was "I'll be there tonight. I'm looking forward to meeting John Scalzi and getting my book signed." The second option was "Can't make it", and the generated response for this was "Hi, Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to the event tonight. Thanks…"
Both of these are appropriate, and for the "I'll be there" option, it absolutely took contextual clues from the email to provide an appropriate response. Obviously, your mileage will vary given that each email is different. I tested a bunch of emails, and some did not provide any smart reply options, so you may not always see suggestions. There is one last feature: Priority emails.
Priority Messages
A lot of people receive a tremendous amount of email in the course of a day. I am not one of these people. The emails that I receive are generally just informational emails, like from Patreon, bills, or even newsletters. It is not often that I get a personal email sent to me. However, there are those that get a lot of emails. For these individuals, it might be crucial to see the most important emails. Now, with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sierra 15.1, this is a feature that you can utilize.
Much like Smart Replies and Summarization, Priority Inbox is enabled by default, including on the "All Inboxes" mailbox, if you have more than one configured mail account. You can configure each inbox for Priority Messages by performing the following steps:
Open the Mail app.
Click on the inbox you want to configure for Priority.
Click on the "…" icon in the upper right corner.
Uncheck "Show Priority".
If you have Priority inbox enabled, Mail will attempt to bring the most important messages to the top of your inbox. This is useful to make sure that you see the items that you really need to see. Now, it should be noted, that this is not Mail Categorization. That is not available in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1. Mail Categorization will be available in a future update.
Closing Thoughts on Summarization and Mail
You can easily get a quick summary of notifications. This could be a series of messages from a group chat, notification about new podcast episodes, or even notifications. Each summary is grouped by app, and these summarizations will be updated as new notifications come in. But these are not the only summaries that you can receive. Mail will automatically provide a summary for you. These summaries are shown below the sender and email subject and are typically only a line long. If you want a slightly longer summary, you can get this by clicking on the "Summarize" button above the email.
Mail will automatically organize your emails to show "Priority Messages". Priority Messages are those messages that Mail thinks are the most important to you. While it is enabled by default, you can configure this behavior on a per-inbox basis.
Be sure to check out all of the other articles in the series:
Today Apple has unveiled a new Mac mini that has the M4. This is not just a spec bump, but it includes a couple of new features, chief amongst them is a new form factor.
Form Factor
The Mac mini was introduced in 2005, and was a smaller version of the Mac, hence the name Mac mini. The Mac mini was 6.5 inches wide, had a 6.5 inch depth, and was 2 inches tall. This remained the form factor until 2011 when a new Unibody version was introduced, one that eliminated the internal disc drive. This Mac mini was physical larger at 7.7 inches wide, 7.7-inches in depth, and only 1.4 inches tall. All Mac minis introduced since 2011 have had the exact same physical footprint, including the M1 and M2 Mac minis. This all changes with the M4.
In 2022 Apple introduced a whole new machine, the Mac Studio. This took some of the design elements from the Mac mini but expanded them. The M1 and M2 Mac Studio were 7.7-inches wide, had a 7.7 inch depth, but was significantly taller at 3.7 inches.
The M4 Mac mini takes some design cues from the Apple TV. The M4 Mac mini is 5 inches wide, has a 5 inch depth, and is only 2 inches tall. This means that it is smaller than the previous Mac mini, but still a bit larger than an Apple TV. Before we dive into the ports, let us look at the processor.
M4 and M4 Pro
The Mac mini has come with a variety of processors. The previous M2 Mac mini was available in both M2 and M2 Pro variants. The same continues for the M4 Mac mini, with the M4 and M4 Pro. The M4 consists of a 10-core CPU, with 4 performance cores and 6-efficiency cores, and a 10-Core GPU. According to Apple, the M4 Mac mini is significantly faster than the M1 Mac mini. Specifically,
When compared to the Mac mini with M1, Mac mini with M4:
- Performs spreadsheet calculations up to 1.7x faster in Microsoft Excel.
- Transcribes with on-device AI speech-to-text up to 2x faster in MacWhisper.
- Merges panoramic images up to 4.9x faster in Adobe Lightroom Classic.
The M4 Pro has tow configurations, a 12-core version with 8 performance cores, and 4 efficiency cores with a 16-Core GPU. The other M4 Pro option is a 14-core CPU, with 10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores and a 20-core GPU. From Apple’s press release:
When compared to the Mac mini with M2 Pro, Mac mini with M4 Pro:
- Applies up to 1.8x more audio effect plugins in a Logic Pro project.
- Renders motion graphics to RAM up to 2x faster in Motion.
- Completes 3D renders up to 2.9x faster in Blender.
All M4 and M4 Pro models have a 16-core Neural engine for machine learning and Apple Intelligence tasks.
Ports
Back view of the M4 Mac mini
The M4 Mac mini has a total of 7 ports, an ethernet jack, an HDMI port, and 5 USB-C ports. Of these ports, two are on the front, much like the Mac Studio, and three are on the back. The two on the front are USB-C with USB 3 speeds up to 10 gigabits per second. The three ports on the back are Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports. For the M4 models, these are Thunderbolt 4 ports, which can delivery data up to 40 Gigabits per second. The M4 M4 Pro devices are Thunderbolt 5 ports, which can deliver a whopping 120 Gigabits per second. The USB portion can deliver up to 40 Gigabits per second.
The difference in Thunderbolt ports does mean that there is a difference in DisplayPort compatibility. The Thunderbolt 4 ports support DisplayPort 1.4 while the Thunderbolt 5 ports support DisplayPort 2.1. The HDMI port on either model can support one display with 8K resolution at 60Hz, or 4K resolution at 240Hz.
By default the ethernet port is a gigabit port, but you can opt for a 10-gigabit per second port for $100 more. The Mac mini has long had a headphone jack this is still present on all models of the M4 Mac mini.
Pricing and Availability
The M4 Mac mini starts at $599 for 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage. You can configure the M4 models with 24GB or 32GB of memory, and up to 2TB of storage.
The M4 Pro Mac mini starts at $1399 for a 12-core CPU and 16-core GPU, 24GB of unified memory, 512GB of storage. You can configure the M4 Pro Mac mini with 48GB or 64GB of unified memory, and 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB of storage.
The M4 Mac mini is available for pre-order today and will be available for delivery and in store on Friday November 8th.
Closing Thoughts
While other devices have received a redesign specifically for the lower power usage of Apple Silicon, the Mac mini was not one of them. The Mac mini has finally received its redesign. The smaller form factor takes cues from both the Mac Studio and Apple TV. The M4 and M4 Pro should be great upgrades from anyone who has an Intel Mac, and if you are upgrading from the M1, it will still be a solid update.
Technology is consistently entertaining new crazes. Some examples include blockchain, subscription juicers, netbooks, 3D televisions, hyperloop, and "hoverboards", just to name a handful of examples. All of these were going to be "the next big thing", but none of these have panned out as the inventors intended.
There has been a term bandied about that people think may be the end-all for computers. Said term is "Artificial Intelligence", or "AI". The term "AI" can mean a variety of different things, depending on whom you ask. However, when most use the term AI, what they are expecting is a fully conscious and sentient entity that can think, act, and rationalize as a human would. This is called "Artificial General Intelligence". Today's technology is nowhere even close to being able to come to this reality. It is not yet known whether or not Artificial Intelligence will actually live up to its ultimate expectations.
Apple is not known for being jumping on bandwagons and being the first to create new categories of technology; they typically leave that to others. However, if there is a technology that they can put their own spin on, they might do so. At their World Wide Developer Conference 24, they introduced one of these types of technologies, called "Apple Intelligence".
Apple Intelligence is not a single item; in fact, it goes against the grain of other AI assistants and only works on your data. Apple Intelligence consists of a variety of tools to help you accomplish a specific task. When introduced, Apple indicated that the initial features of Apple Intelligence would be released over the course of the iOS/iPad 18 and macOS Sequoia releases.
The items that comprise Apple Intelligence include: Writing Tools, Image Generation, and Personalized Requests. Initially, Apple wanted to have the first items available with iOS 18; however, during the beta, Apple realized that the features would not be far enough along for an initial iOS/iPadOS 18.0 and macOS Sequoia (15.0) release, so they were pushed to iOS/iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1.
Not every device that can run iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1 is able to support Apple Intelligence. To be able to run Apple Intelligence you need to have one of the following devices:
iPhone 16/Plus (A18)
iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max (A18 Pro)
iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max (A17 Pro)
iPad mini (A17 Pro or later)
iPad Air (M1 or later)
iPad Pro (M1 or later)
Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later)
The reason that these devices are the minimum is a combination of needing 8GB of memory, as well as a neural engine.
This article is part of an on-going series that covers the features of Apple Intelligence, as they become available. This article focuses on the Apple Intelligence feature called "Typing with Siri".
Siri
Siri is Apple's personal assistant. Back in 2010 Apple acquired a voice assistant called Siri. In 2011, with the release of iOS 5 and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Siri became integrated into the operating system. When integrated with the operating system, Siri could perform a few more actions and over time you have been able to perform even more actions with Siri, like getting information about the weather, asking who was in a particular movie, or even getting the latest sports scores. Beyond being able to perform more actions and get more information from Siri.
Siri has expanded to more than just the iPhone and the Mac. You can use Siri on your Apple Watch, Apple TV, as well as on the HomePod. In order to use Siri with these devices you can either hold down a particular button, or you can use the phrase "Hey Siri" to activate Siri. This has been the wake word since 2011. Last year, in 2023 with the release of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma, Apple provided the ability to use the word "Siri" instead of "Hey Siri". This was a boon, but this may not be the only way to interact with Siri.
Type to Siri
One of the limitations of Siri is that you need to use your voice to use Siri. This may work in a variety of situations, like while at home, while driving, or even in any area where you are alone. However, you may not want to use voice interactions but still may want to use Siri. There is a new way of using Siri, by typing to it.
The way that you use "Type to Siri" differs depending on the operating system. To use Type to Siri on iPhone and iPad you simply double-tap on the home indicator. On a Mac, use the keyboard combination Globe + S. If you have a keyboard connected to your iPad, you can also use the same keyboard combination.
It is different on macOS. By default the keyboard shortcut is to hit either of hte "command" keys twice. But this is not enabled by default. Before you can type to Siri, you will need to enable it. On macOS this can be done by using the following steps:
Open System Settings.
Click on "Apple Intelligence & Siri" to bring up the Apple Intelligence & Siri settings.
Enable the "Siri" toggle.
Screenshot of the macOS Sequoia popup confirming that you want to enable Siri
Once enabled, you can use press either of the command keys, twice in a row. However, you may want to have the same key combination as on iOS and iPadOS. This can be done by selecting the appropriate "Keyboard Shortcut" option within the Apple Intelligenice & Siri setting. The system options are:
Globe + S
Press Left Command Key Twice
Press Right Command Key Twice
Press Either Command Key Twice
Custom
If you select "Custom", you will need to enter in the keyboard combination that you want to use. It is best to avoid any existing system key combinations, otherwise you might become confused. Now, let us look at actually using Type to Siri.
Using Type to Siri
Once you bring up Type to Siri you will have a text box where you can enter in your request. After tapping the "send" button or hitting the enter key your request will be sent to Siri. Instead of your result being spoken out loud, your result will be shown on the screen. As you type, Siri will provide suggestions for items that you may want to do.
Suggested Actions
As an example, if you start typing "Create", you may get something like "Create a new note". Another example, if you type "Play", you may get suggestions for playing certain music playlists. For me, it was "Play New Music - 2024/09", "Play Heavy Rotation playlist", and "Play Guilty as Sin? by Taylor Swift". Each of these have been playlists, or songs, that I have been playing a lot lately.
Screenshot of the suggestions from Type to Siri with the phrase 'Play'
The suggestions I got are from my iPhone. When I tried the same thing on my MacBook Pro I got "Open Playgrounds", "Play the news", and "Play some music". Similarly, on my iPad Pro I got "Play my voicemail", "Play my Audiobook", and "Open Playgrounds".
The different responses make complete sense because it is being processed locally and it is contextual to what you do on that device. Becaue I do not play music on my iPad Pro, Siri did not suggest that as an option. To be honest, I am a bit confused as to why it would suggest to "Play voicemails", when there is no phone app on the iPad.
Results
Just as when you use your voice with Siri you can perform more thn just the suggested actions. You can type the same requests that you would normally say. My go to example is asking the tongue twister "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?". Siri, naturally responded with:
About as much ground as a groundhog could hog if a groundhog could hog ground.
How about another tongue twister?
Siri's response to the "Woodchuck" tongue twister.
These are just a couple of examples of what you can do when you type to Siri. This may not seem like a big deal, but being able to use your keyboard with Siri is a huge shift in how and when you might use Siri. You are no longer required to use your voice, which means that this can be used in almost ANY situation, which is something that many have wanted since Siri was introduced.
Closing Thoughts on Siri
Now, you do not need to be self-conscious about using Siri in public, because you do not need to say anything, you can simply type your request and have Siri show you the results. When you make a request, suggestions will be shown and you can simply type in your request and Siri will provide you the answer.
Siri will be getting even more features later, but this is the current new feature for Siri, at least as of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1.
This post is just one in a series about Apple Intelligence, There will be more articles in this series, so be sure to check out those articles.
