
Apple announces design overhaul of operating systems with 'liquid glass', opening up underlying AI technology to developers
9 June 2025 23:12
CUPERTINO (REUTERS)Apple said on Monday it will open up the underlying technology it uses for Apple Intelligence and announced an overhaul of its operating systems.The tone and content of the presentations at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference focused more on incremental developments, including live translations for phone calls, that improve everyday life rather than the sweeping ambitions for AI that Apple's rivals are marketing.Apple software chief Craig Federighi said the company is opening up the foundational AI model that it uses for some of its own features to third-party developers."This work needed more time to reach our high quality bar," Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, said of the delays of some features such as improvements to the Siri virtual assistant.In an early demonstration of how partners could improve Apple apps, the company added image generation from OpenAI's ChatGPT to its Image Playground app, saying that user data would not be shared with OpenAI without a user's permission.Apple is facing an unprecedented set of technical and regulatory challenges as some of its key executives kicked off the company's annual software developer conference on Monday.Shares of Apple, which were flat before the conference, slipped 1.5% after executives took the stage in Cupertino, California.Federighi also said Apple plans a design overhaul of all of its operating systems.Apple's redesign of its operating systems centered on a design it calls "liquid glass", where icons and menus are partially transparent, a step Apple executives said was possible because of the more powerful custom chips in Apple devices versus a decade ago.Federighi said the new design will span operating systems for iPhones, Macs and other Apple products.He also said Apple's operating systems will be given year names instead of sequential numbers for each version. That will unify naming conventions that have become confusing because Apple's core operating systems for phones, watches and other devices kicked off at different times, resulting in a smattering of differently numbered operating systems for different products.In other new features, Apple introduced "Call Screening" where iPhones will automatically answer calls from an unknown number and ask the caller the purpose of their call. Once the caller states their purpose, the iPhone will show a transcription of the reason for the call, and ring for the owner.Apple also said it will add live translation to phone calls, as well as allow developers to integrate its live translation technology into their apps. Apple said the caller on the other end of the phone call will not need to have an iPhone for the live translation feature to work.
Apple's Visual Intelligence app - which can help users find a pair of shoes similar to ones at which they have pointed an iPhone camera - will be extended to analysing items on the iPhone's screen and linked together with apps. Apple gave an example of seeing a jacket online and using the feature to find a similar one for sale on an app already installed in the user's iPhone.
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Zawya
33 minutes ago
- Zawya
Apple opens its AI to developers but keeps its broader ambitions modest
CUPERTINO, California: Apple announced on Monday a slew of artificial intelligence features including opening up Apple Intelligence's underlying technology in a modest update of its software and services as it lays the groundwork for future advances. The presentations at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference focused more on incremental developments, including live translations for phone calls, that improve everyday life rather than the sweeping ambitions for AI that Apple's rivals are marketing. A year after it failed to deliver promised AI-based upgrades to key products such as Siri, Apple kept its AI promises to consumers low-key, communicating that it could help with tasks like finding where to buy a jacket similar to one they have seen online. Behind the scenes, Apple hinted at a strategy of offering its own tools to developers alongside those from rivals, similar to a strategy by Microsoft last month. Apple software chief Craig Federighi said the company will offer both its own and OpenAI's code completion tools in its key Apple developer software and that the company is opening up the foundational AI model that it uses for some of its own features to third-party developers. "We're opening up access for any app to tap directly into the on-device, large language model at the core of Apple," Federighi said. In an early demonstration of this at work, the company added image generation from OpenAI's ChatGPT to its Image Playground app, saying that user data would not be shared with OpenAI without a user's permission. "You could see Apple's priority is what they're doing on the back-end, instead of what they're doing at the front-end, which most people don't really care about yet," said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of analyst firm Creative Strategies. Apple is facing an unprecedented set of technical and regulatory challenges as it kicked off its software developer conference. Shares of Apple, which were flat before the start of the event, closed 1.2% lower on Monday. "In a moment in which the market questions Apple's ability to take any sort of lead in the AI space, the announced features felt incremental at best," Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at said. Compared with what other big AI companies are introducing, he added, "It just seems that the clock is ticking faster every day for Apple." That is a contrast to the ambitious vision laid out by Apple last year. "They went from being visionary and talking about agents before a lot of other people did, to now realizing that, at the end of the day, what they need to do is deliver on what they presented a year ago," said Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research. Apple executives said that developers will have access only to Apple's on-device version of Apple Intelligence, which does not tap into special data centers Apple built for its AI efforts. The on-device model is about 3 billion parameters, a measurement of the model's level of sophistication, meaning that it cannot handle the more complex tasks that cloud-based models can. As Apple executives discussed new features at the event in Cupertino, California, OpenAI announced a new financial milestone on Monday, reaching $10 billion in annualized revenue run rate as of June. OS UPDATES Federighi also said Apple plans a design overhaul of all of its operating systems. Apple's redesign of its operating systems centered on a design it calls "liquid glass" where icons and menus are partially transparent, a step Apple executives said was possible because of the more powerful custom chips in Apple devices versus a decade ago. Federighi said the new design will span operating systems for iPhones, Macs and other Apple products. He also said Apple's operating systems will be given year names instead of sequential numbers for each version. That will unify naming conventions that have become confusing because Apple's core operating systems for phones, watches and other devices kicked off at different times, resulting in a smattering of differently numbered operating systems for different products. Some analysts told Reuters that Apple's decision to introduce familiar Mac capabilities, such as a multitasking interface and menu bar, to iPad could portend a shift in priorities around which devices it markets to consumers. In other new features, Apple introduced "Call Screening" where iPhones will automatically answer calls from an unknown number and ask the caller the purpose of their call. Once the caller states their purpose, the iPhone will show a transcription of the reason for the call, and ring for the owner. Apple also said it will add live translation to phone calls, as well as allow developers to integrate its live translation technology into their apps. Apple said the caller on the other end of the phone call will not need to have an iPhone for the live translation feature to work. Apple's Visual Intelligence app - which can help users find a pair of shoes similar to ones at which they have pointed an iPhone camera - will be extended to analyzing items on the iPhone's screen and linked together with apps. Apple gave an example of seeing a jacket online and using the feature to find a similar one for sale on an app already installed in the user's iPhone. (Reporting by Stephen Nellis and Kenrick Cai in Cupertino, California; Additional reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Kenneth Li and Matthew Lewis)


Zawya
33 minutes ago
- Zawya
US Stocks: S&P 500 ends slightly up; traders watch US-China trade talks
The S&P 500 ended slightly higher on Monday, lifted by Amazon and Alphabet, while investors watched U.S.-China negotiations aimed at mending a trade dispute that has rattled financial markets for much of the year. Top officials from both countries have kicked off discussions, looking to get back on track with a preliminary trade agreement struck last month that had briefly cooled tensions between the world's largest economies. 'The market deems any dialogue with Beijing as progress, whether or not it leads to tangible results. The market is just going to take the administration's word for it, until proven otherwise,' said Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Amazon and Google parent Alphabet each gained more than 1% and helped keep the S&P 500 in positive territory. said it plans to invest at least $20 billion in Pennsylvania to expand data center infrastructure, adding to the billions of dollars the technology giant has committed to the expansion of artificial intelligence. Apple dipped 1.2% after the iPhone maker kicked off its annual software developer conference with incremental developments that did little to impress investors. The S&P 500 climbed 0.09% to end the session at 6,005.88 points. The Nasdaq gained 0.31% to 19,591.24 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended essentially unchanged at 42,761.76 points. Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, six declined, led lower by utilities, down 0.66%, followed by a 0.55% loss in financials. Expectations of more trade deals between the U.S. and its major trading partners, along with upbeat earnings and tame inflation data, helped U.S. equities rally in May, with the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq notching their best monthly gains since November 2023. The S&P 500 remained about 2% below its all-time high touched in February, while the Nasdaq is about 3% below its December record high. Warner Bros Discovery fell about 3% after the company said it would separate its studios and streaming business from its struggling cable television networks. Immediately after the announcement, it had surged as much as 13%. Shares of McDonald's dipped 0.8% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the fast-food restaurant to "equal-weight" from "overweight". Robinhood Markets dropped almost 2% after S&P Dow Jones Indices left S&P 500 constituents unchanged in its latest rebalancing, following recent speculation that the online brokerage would be added to the benchmark index. Major data releases this week include readings on May consumer prices on Wednesday and initial jobless claims on Thursday. While investors widely expect the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates unchanged next week, focus will be on any signs of pick-up in inflation as Trump's tariffs risk raising price pressures. Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.1-to-one ratio. The S&P 500 posted 16 new highs and 4 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 97 new highs and 46 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 17.1 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 17.8 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions. (Reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Devika Syamnath; Editing by David Gregorio)


The National
8 hours ago
- The National
Apple WWDC: Liquid Glass, iPad changes and iOS 26 impress, but no major Siri AI overhaul
Apple on Monday unveiled a new operating system interface called Liquid Glass that will be coming to iPhones, iPads and other devices this autumn. Apple designers at the Worldwide Developers Conference in Apple Park, California, said the design of iOS 26 will 'refract light' and 'dynamically respond to touch', creating a more lively experience. Liquid Glass's 'unified design language' will change how hundreds of millions of iPhone users interact with their devices. It also plays to Apple's strengths, going back to the original Macintosh introduced in 1984, with interfaces that, in theory, make things easier for users. Apple said Liquid Glass is the most significant iOS redesign since iOS 7. 'Our new design blurs the lines between hardware and software to create an experience that's more delightful than ever. While still familiar and easy to use,' said Alan Dye, Apple vice president of human interfaces. Through the new interface, Apple said there will be more lock-screen and home-screen personalisation options, and camera app settings will be simpler. As the conference opened, Apple addressed its failure to deliver an improved Siri voice assistant, which was promised at last year's WWDC. 'This work needed more time to reach our high quality bar, and we look forward to sharing more about it later in the year,' said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering. As was widely speculated before the conference, Apple said it would be changing how it numbers its iOS updates. The names will correspond to the years in which they are released, meaning the next version due to be released this year will be iOS 26. Apple also promoted changes to its messaging app, providing more options for personalising group chats. Background pictures can be picked and assigned to various group chats, polls can be generated in the conversation when appropriate, and there will be enhancements that allow the Apple Cash transfer app to be used within the groups. The company also enhancing its Genmoji offerings, bringing more emoji customisation features for users. Live Translation The company also introduced Live Translation, which will be integrated into the iPhone's Messages, Phone and FaceTime video conferencing iOS apps on the release of iOS 26. With the help of Apple Intelligence, it allows for conversations to be translated in real time. According to Apple, Live Translation in Messages will be available in Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Live Translation in Phone and FaceTime will be available in Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Apple demonstrated Live Translation for FaceTime, showing someone speaking in one language with a live caption of the translation presented on screen. Apple said it would also allow for developers to implement Live Translation into their apps through a new API. The Live Translation offering is expected to be available when iOS 26 is released. Apple Intelligence At its previous WWDC, Apple introduced its generative AI service, Apple Intelligence, Some of the company's promoted AI features at the time – particularly the writing and image-generation tools, and the optional implementation of integration of OpenAI's ChatGPT – came to fruition, but the much- promised overhaul of Siri, its voice-based digital assistant, was plagued with problems, causing Apple to delay a much-needed update. Apple hinted at small improvements to Siri, but the larger overhaul would take more time. Mr Federighi announced that the company would be opening up access to the Apple Intelligence generative AI models to outside developers. 'Large language model at the core of Apple intelligence with a new foundation models framework, this gives developers direct access to intelligence that's powerful, fast, built with privacy and available even when you're offline,' he said. iPad OS window system Apple also confirmed a long-rumoured overhaul to the iPad's interface, giving users the choice to make it more like a desktop or laptop Mac OS experience, with overlapping and movable windows. The iPad OS also gives users the option to choose tiled window options that cleanly show the different apps and files open on an iPad in an automatically spaced-out format. The iPad is also getting a menu bar that appears near the top of the screen. Although it will always be available to users, it disappears when not in use to prevent clutter on the screen. 'It's a massive update to the way you work on multiple apps at once,' Mr Ferdaghi said. Apple emphasised that users can continue to use iPads without the window interface as well. Apple's WWDC style, compared with Google Inevitably, expectations were high for Apple, which many felt was put on the defensive by Google's I/O conference several weeks ago when the search-giant did live demonstrations of the company's new AI tools. Apple's WWDC was recorded and shown on screens to the hundreds of thousands of developers who went to Cupertino for the week-long event. Although he appeared in the first several minutes of Apple's WWDC, chief executive Tim Cook largely deferred Mr Federighi and other Apple executives to display the company's coming offerings. The WWDC focused on design and user-interface options, while Google focused on AI integration across its tools, including Gmail and Google Docs. It is likely that Apple did not satisfy critics who have long complained that it has not been able to deliver a cohesive corporate vision for its AI offerings.