A facelift, and some actually useful AI features from Apple at WWDC

Yes, Apple held its developer conference and traditional keynote to announce new software yesterday. It’s hard to miss.

It debuted a new user interface across its systems, and launched a whole suite of «Apple Intelligence» features.

Of note was a new live translation tool working through an on-device large language model, that translates across messages, FaceTime and the phone app.

Then came «Visual Intelligence, a tool that reads screenshots and lets you search the net for visual items. You can also tap into ChatGPT to ask questions about the content.

Goodies for developers
They also, as expected, announced ChatGPT-integration in Xcode in a new update. You can also integrate API keys from other AI models as well.

Finally, there’s The Foundation Models Framework, giving developers access to Apple’s llms so they can develop with them and put Apple Intelligence right into third-party apps.

No fancy AI battery settings
As far as the rumored AI battery management feature, Apple did announce battery tweaks, but it seems to be a pretty straightforward «Adaptive Power»-mode that adjusts things like screen brightness under load to extend the battery longevity.

Public betas will arrive in July, says MacRumors — and final versions are expected, as usual, in the fall.

Read more: MacRumors and 9to5Mac are essential reading on days like this, Engadget has a roundup, as does The Verge. Read up on Apple’s on-device Foundation models here.