Apple has been touting “Apple Intelligence” hard since last year’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers’ Conference). All the marketing said Apple Intelligence would be available with the release of the iPhone 16 series. It wasn’t released with the new phones but has rather been ‘dribbled’ out to users over the last few months since late October. Apple has stated these releases are in “beta” status, which means they’re not polished, still under active development, etc.
Why a company is hinging its latest and greatest thing on beta software is beyond my comprehension as a software developer. Can you imagine this scenario if we sent astronauts to the Moon using beta software? “I’m sorry folks, we need to reboot the onboard computer due to a glitch, hold your breath for the next 10 minutes while we look into the bugs”.
Beta software being released to the general public has significantly lowered expectations in computer hardware and software and frankly, across society in general. Everyone expects bugs and glitches to be everywhere now.
We live in a society infested with virtual fleas.
I’ve been trying to use the dribs and drabs of Apple Intelligence since their soft release in late October. I’ve let the A.I. sort my email. I’ve smirked at horrible text and mail message summaries. I should have grabbed one particularly funny screenshot, “Mother is making screaming noises”. I believe the actual text had something to do with frustration with an iPhone.
But it’s in beta, so it is what it is.
That’s Apple’s excuse for everything now. Slap a “beta” on the feature and call it a day. If Apple Intelligence were to summarize this approach, “Apple doesn’t really know its direction or platform. Wedging Apple Intelligence into everything. Please stockholders”.
Today I turned off Apple Intelligence across my devices. The ‘feature’ is getting in my way too often. I upgraded my MacBook Air to the latest version of MacOS and now I can no longer do a spotlight search for an application. As a keyboard centric user, if I want to open my web browser I’ve always been able to hit CMD-SPACEBAR, type Firefox, and hit return. Now the top result of that search is a W-2 form from 2020 when I used Firefox to download the associated PDF.
In no way is that intelligent.
When I turned Apple Intelligence off I was warned that Siri would no longer be able to use the advanced features of Apple Intelligence. If what I’ve experienced with Siri since late October is the result of Apple Intelligence, well then Apple needs to just give up the ghost. To put it another way, I often fantasize of hitting a HomePod mini with a baseball bat and watching it fly out into the wash behind the house, but I don’t want to pollute the desert with garbage.
I’ll take my chances with Siri until I move to something a little more intelligent.
I honestly don’t know what Apple is trying to achieve outside of lining the pockets of stockholders these days. Anything that used to make Apple stand out has all but vanished. Yeah, the hardware is excellent but nearly not repairable. For a company that featured the awesome Octavia Spencer as Mother Nature, they seem to be doing everything they can to try to shove Chiffon in her face.
As I finish up this blog entry I am listening to motivational music using Bluetooth headphones connected to my iPhone. The music just abruptly stopped, even though the player shows everything humming along nicely on my iPhone display. I had to restart the app and restart my headphones to get things working again, and even then Bluetooth seemed to struggle.
Bluetooth has been around for only a few decades, so perhaps it’s still ‘beta’.
I gripe about Apple more than I praise them these days and I’m not ashamed of this. It’s warranted.
I don’t want Apple Intelligence and I’m pretty sure anyone reading this doesn’t want it either. With the latest AI (LLM) models coming out of China and completely spanking the American “AI” industry, I’m hopeful this stupid AI bubble will pop sooner than later.
And that’s smart.
