• WhiteyMcBrown@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Perfect timing for some serious updates to iWork and iLife apps.

    Pages AI to help you write. Generative artwork to go into Keynote slides. or to help with a GarageBand song.

    It’s been far too long since Software was what got people excited to buy Macs.

    • ranbutann@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Does anyone even use iWork suite these days? Basically everyone I know uses Office or even Google Docs.

      • pleachchapel@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        I think Pages is superior to Word for pure design & stock font options.

        I don’t know who tf is using Numbers instead of Excel though.

      • ElectroByte15@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        Use it every day. Office makes me pull my few remaining hairs out. For generic use, iWork beats all the others in overall experience.

      • Simply_Epic@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        I used them all throughout college. Office is just too unintuitive and Google Docs is missing too many basic formatting features. The iWork apps do everything I need them to do and it’s intuitive to use.

      • WhiteyMcBrown@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        I use it too but I might use it more if Apple looked like they cared to update them. They used to make a big deal about their big software features. I don’t really know what’s been done since iWork '09. (as in “the year 2009”). Going web only in some Google Docs copy or adding AI tools might be worth talking about.

        • Shrinks99@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          Hey the last update brought SVG support.

          I swear it has a team of 2 people responsible for it or something. Pages and Keynote (Numbers is fine but will never be Excel for better or worse) are really great software and I wish they had more capital allocated to them.

      • darkknight32@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        Keynote is all I really use. I’ll use Figma one in awhile for a presentation (used to do it all in indesign). But keynote isn’t that bad. A ton of nuances to it but once you work with them, it clicks.

        But google docs over pages for sure. Not even a competition imo.

      • _amethyst@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        I still use Pages a lot of the time. It works on all of my devices and it has a few Microsoft Word-level features that Google Docs is missing. Mail Merge is a notable one for me.

        It’s not super important for most people but if you need it it’s much easier to use Pages with its built-in Mail Merge than it is to fuck around with weird privacy-invasive third-party Google Docs addons.

    • NecroCannon@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I don’t see Apple going too deep into generative work considering the current murky legalities so I wonder how they’re going to do it in their Apple way.

  • igkeit@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    The new features should improve how both Siri and the Messages app can field questions and auto-complete sentences, mirroring recent changes to competing services.

    Yeah right “improve Siri” never heard that one before

    • Portatort@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Siri has been improving since its first introduction

      Not as fast as we might like but pretty silly to say it’s not been improved ever

    • -metal-555@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      The difference is now LLM style text generation is a huge leap in what previous voice assistants could do.

      It’s not exactly just trying the same method once more.

    • esp211@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      This is exactly the type of posts that make Reddit an absolute cesspool

    • shadowstripes@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I thought most people use Mac OS and iOS for that software though? Even back when it could natively run Windows the vast majority of Mac owners still preferred to use Mac OS.

      • ScaryBluejay87@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        There’s a difference between the OS and the underlying structure/how it operates, and the software you use under that OS.

        You can run MacOS but use Excel over Pages, or Firefox over Safari, still a different experience than using the same software under Windows.

    • Portatort@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Oh come on. Apples hard ware is slightly nicer than the competition but its software is far far above anything else out there.

      They’re obviously behind on personal assistants and AI but I’d still rather spend time on iOS than android.

      • ScaryBluejay87@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        One of the main draws for me is the fact that the same company maker the software and hardware, and that they optimise them for each other.

    • tkukoc@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Agreed, I have yet to see one thing AI will do for me that I can’t already do myself.

      • Portatort@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        That’s the point… it does things for you so you don’t have to do them yourself.

      • paucus62@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        to make it do it for you, and therefore save a lot of time. I can write paragraphs, sure, but i can have an AI write a 80% passable paragraph in less than 5 seconds, while it would have taken me much more than that.

    • SquishyPeas@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      On the pixel 8 it uses generative AI to make unique wallpapers based on prompts. It’s really cool

    • zeek215@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      It’s your own personal assistant that will (eventually) handle basically any and all tasks/requests you do with devices today (alarms, reminders, directions, messages, emails, fact questions, general questions, etc.).

  • tiagojpg@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Man, I just need my keyboard to remember that word I’ve typed 3000 times and not correct it to something totally different

  • Flipmode0052@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Haha you mean apples hope that Siri naturally evolves into AI? Since Apple obviously is completely and utterly incapable of improving Siri further then removing the “Hey” from “Hey Siri” in 10 yrs?

  • cjboffoli@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    “Apple was caught flat-footed when ChatGPT and other AI tools took the technology industry by storm…”

    This is not only editorializing but fundamentally false. Just more of the standard anti-Apple, negative clickbait bullshit from Bloomberg.

  • F1amy@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    The most Apple-way I see it being implemented is using local processing, which requires non existing (yet) technology. Mobile chips aren’t capable enough to do serious AI work, if latest Google Pixel AI-features is any indication (they are using cloud compute).

  • tino768@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    As long as whatever they come up with doesn’t require a new chip/chip version and thus a phone upgrade.

    • frownGuy12@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      If it’s could based it won’t. If it’s a local model then I imagine you’ll need a new chip and much more RAM.

      • No_Island963@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think a new chip will be necessary, even if Apple might say something else. The potential of the currently installed Neural Engines in the iPhone has not been exhausted to this day.

        For example, most tasks that require the Neural Engine still run smoothly on the iPhone XS/11

  • jcrestor@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    As somebody who is quite happy to have tested out a lot of LLM related stuff I‘m gonna say we are still very, very, VERY early in the cycle. Although things are seemingly moving fast, Generative AI right now is a thing for early adopters. I don’t see a whole lot of implementations that are well thought through and integrated. The most exciting stuff like LLM agents and AI assistants is nearly inaccessible right now to the broad audience.

    I am fine with Apple taking some time to get it right. Their strength is the flawless integration into an ecosystems, not to slap some single feature on top of an existing app and calling it a day.