Apple's week August 29: awe slopping

Apple's week August 29: awe slopping
ChatGPT via Siri reinterpreting Apple's event invite into a silly abstract

It's almost time for the iPhone 17 event, and I can't help but have some concerns. Sure, Apple has been rather restrained in how it has handled Apple Intelligence so far, but its competitors are being much more cavalier.

I created the main image using Siri to send the Apple invite logo to ChatGPT to reproduce the image using an AI generator. Done in honor of Google's new slop machine.

This has to do with the Google Pixel 10 Pro and its AI-slop 10x zoom. More on that in a moment.

Funny enough, I completely forgot I was trying a format change last week, so back to it. Here's the news of the week.

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In the shadow of an Apple event

It's still more than a week away, but Apple's awe dropping iPhone 17 event is encompassing all news around tech at the moment. All we can talk about is what might happen at this event, even as some have prematurely dismissed it as boring or iterative.

One thing I can say for sure is Apple won't be discarding its approach to technology in favor of a fad. Google's Pixel 10 is an interesting piece of hardware, but it's also reignited a conversation around realism versus AI ideals.

I wrote a whole thing about Apple's approach to photography being based on reflecting reality in 2023. It was the peak of the Samsung moon manipulation thing, and it's wild that we're still having similar discussions.

The Google Pixel 10 will hallucinate a photo of what it thinks is real if you zoom past the 5x optical lens. That's just terrible no matter which angle you tackle this problem.

I often use the iPhone 25x digital zoom to read a sign or see something far away. It isn't something I'd hang on the wall, but it's a utility.

When zooming past 5x on a Google Pixel 10, there's no guarantee the photo you take will represent reality. If text is involved, just don't even bother.

A photo of signs taken with Google Pixel 10 with 10x zoom that have AI generated nonsense lettering
AI hallucinated letters in a shot from John Scalzi

I hate that this is where we are in the tech discourse. Even worse, Apple is accused of being behind for not implementing similar features.

I just hope that Apple doesn't fall into a trap of trying to introduce AI image processing into its pipeline. Though there's always a chance.

I'll go ahead and put it out there that if Apple does introduce something into the photography pipeline related to AI, that I won't have a problem if it's optional. Give users some agency before fundamentally altering a photo.

I don't want some random portion of taking a photo turning into an on-device AI slop generator. I expect Apple doesn't either.

Let's hope they stick to that.

Apple's AI strategy

Yes, I've been banging this drum for weeks. A Sunday report from Bloomberg may have been a bit dramatic, but the core of it reinforced what I've been discussing for weeks.

Apple isn't giving up on Apple Intelligence; in fact, it is working with third parties to bring models to Private Cloud Compute. There's no reason for me to beat this dead horse here; I've linked the story I wrote above.

Simply put, no, Apple isn't going to use Google or anyone else to "power" Siri's backend.

Awe Dropping

It's a silly name, but the event itself will be fun. I'm excited to see what Apple has to offer this year. Listen to the latest AppleInsider Podcast for more of what I think about what's going on with this event.

Of course, the best parts are in AppleInsider+.

I'll be getting whatever the iPhone 17 Pro Max is thanks to the iPhone Upgrade Program. An Apple Watch upgrade mostly depends on what the Apple Watch Ultra 3 looks like.

I want a new Apple TV, HomePods, and AirPods Pro 3. Let's see if they appear during this event.

I fully expect Apple Intelligence will be a central tentpole of the event too. Sure, Apple is still trying to recover from its missed launch of contextual AI, but that shouldn't deter it from announcing what's ready.

There's only one full week left between now and the event. I can't wait to hear what the next year of Apple hardware will look like.

I also released two detailed reviews this week that I'm quite happy with. The fat tire Velotric Nomad 2 with Find My and Apple Health and the Tilta Khronos camera system.

This week's post is a bit short, but life is keeping me pretty busy. Can't wait to get that iPhone 17 Pro Max.

A gray cat and a black cat cuddle in a laundry basket
Edgar and Agatha are buddies