Apple WWDC: New name & look to apps
Preview of what next iPhone will look like
For all the years I’ve been covering Apple, I’ve always looked forward to June and the WWDC developer’s conference. Over a two hour period, Apple would lay out new software features coming to the next edition of the iPhone, and many of those features could also be used on recent models of iPhones.
WWDC, which kicks off Monday, ran like clockwork until 2024, with a WWDC that left mud on Apple’s eye. The company announced several new features utilizing Artificial Intelligence, the flavor of the month, and they sounded great, on paper.
New writing tools to compose e-mail or text messages more professionally
Photo search that was said to use AI to find images and moments in videos faster
A generative tool to create images
A clean-up tool to erase unwanted objects in photos
And that all-new, more responsive, smarter and chattier digital assistant Siri.
Then came the release of the iPhone 16 models in September, and none of those new “Apple Intelligence” features were there. This despite Apple’s marketing touting the AI features as a reason to buy the new iPhone. (That and the new Camera Control dial.) The AI features didn’t start showing up until Halloween, and for many people they were a meh. And even then, some of the new ones were and are still missing.
The biggest piece: that revamped Siri has yet to arrive. And may never. (I’m still waiting for the AI image and video search too!)
On Monday when Apple gives a status report of what’s coming, Apple will probably mention Apple Intelligence (and potential tariff induced price increases) as little as possible. It probably won’t even address the fact that Apple announced things that didn’t materialize. It will focus on the future.
What it will announce, per the usual collection of bloggers and insiders:
—A new naming structure. After years of iOS 15, 16, 17, 18, etc. Apple will turn to car-like monickers: The new iOS looks to be called iOS26, looking ahead to the new year, and the companion software for iPad, Watch and TV will all have “26” in their names too.
—Consumer confusion. Bloomberg calls the coming software update “one of the most dramatic software overhauls” in Apple history, with new looks and positions for apps, buttons and all the other tools we use on our phone. To Apple, that’s a refresh, a way to keep things interesting, but for the rest of us, there are those initial months of struggling to figure out how to re-use the apps after Apple fiddled with them. Remember how we felt when Apple updated the Photos app last year and added all these new features that made the app seem so bloated?
—New look to Camera app. Readers of this newsletter will find this interesting. YouTuber Jon Prosser says the Camera app will get a re-design with new tabs that separate photo and video. This means the app, like the Photos app last year, is likely to be more confusing at first.
—This one we like. How long will it take to get a battery charge up to 100% when you’re running low? Apple will reportedly add the info to the top of the lock screen in the new iOS. Thank you Apple.
After Apple unveils the iOS update, it traditionally makes the software available for developers at that time, and then opens it up to public betas in July. Let’s hope the new features it announces Monday actually make it into what we see in iOS26 this summer and the fall!
The Best Looking Apps
Ahead of its developer conference, Apple released its Design Awards, where it gives nods to several of more innovative, great-looking apps for the iPhone and iPad.
Capwords has a brilliant concept—you take a photo of an object with the phone camera, and the app will translate it into a foreign word so you can learn how to say it. And Speechify, which has been out for awhile, but just getting the nod from Apple, will turn any text on your phone into AI spoken word—texts, e-mails, e-books, you name it.
Great stuff—but boy are these apps expensive, $30 a year for Capwords and $140 for Speechify. Remember when a new app was free?
That AI TV ad for Conservatives
You’ve got to see this. The 30-second ad uses AI generated people to talk about the virtues of using a credit card that donates to right wing causes. How real do you think they look. Scary or not?
We’re in Oklahoma and Texas this week
Next up on Photowalks on Scripps: Part 3 of the Route 66 2,448 mile, 3-week road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, as we pull into Tulsa and continue to Stroud, Oklahoma City and Chandler, and finish up in Texas: Shamrock, Amarillo and Adrian.
Along the way, photo highlights include: the best neon of the trip in Tulsa, the famous Oatmeal pie from the Rock Cafe in Stroud, my favorite backroad hands down, in Luther, OK, the art-deco neon adorned U-Drop Inn Cafe, the free 72 ounce steak (if you can eat it in an hour) and the midpoint line in Adrian, which means by the end of the episode, we’ve made it halfway home.
And you’ll get to meet some of the great folks we met on the road, like Kat, Rhys, Becky, Christine and Lianne.
The show debuts at 10 a.m. ET on Scripps News, and will be replayed on YouTube.
Catch the preview for the episode in the clip above.
Speaking of YouTube, I’ve got the great Texas based photographer Robbie Green on the Live show this week, talking about his amazing Route 66 photography. We’ll be live and taking your questions Wednesday at 5 p.m. PT.
Thanks as always for taking the time to watch, read and listen.
Jeff
P.S. One More!
Friday afternoon, I took a break from editing and found the time for one more Route 66 concoction. To all of you who wished me a hearty happy birthday earlier in the week (thank you very much) this was how we belatedly celebrate: with a chocolate malted at the Fair Oak Pharmacy soda fountain on Route 66 in South Pasadena, California.
Happy Birthday🥳