The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has decided not to invest in OpenAI.
This happened following the completion of OpenAI’s $6.5 billion funding round. It is noted that the main investors will be Microsoft and Nvidia.
Microsoft is already a significant investor in OpenAI and holds 49% of the company’s profit share. The tech giant plans to invest another $1 billion.
Despite declining the investment, Apple and OpenAI will continue to collaborate
The second generation of Apple Vision Pro will be released in 2025, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
It will feature the M5 processor, which will deliver a significant performance boost compared to the current headset.
Another highlight will be the support for Apple Intelligence in visionOS 3. Other characteristics and the design of the Vision Pro will remain unchanged.
The price will also stay the same: $3499 for the base version.
Apple will soon release iOS 18.1 with Apple Intelligence, and many are curious about how much space the new AI features will take up. Finally, Apple itself has answered this question.
According to a document added in iOS 18.1 beta 5, Apple Intelligence will require 4 GB of storage on an iPhone.
Additionally, the document includes a footnote that says, ‘The storage requirements for Apple Intelligence models on devices will increase as new features are rolled out.’ Thus, 4 GB is the minimum required for Apple Intelligence.
Moreover, this requirement is only for iPhones. It’s possible that iPads and Macs will require a different amount of resources.
The size of Apple Intelligence in beta versions changes regularly. In iOS 18.1 beta 5, its size decreased to 2.6 GB, though in previous versions it ranged from 3.5 to 4 GB.
However, considering that Apple will regularly add new features, the size of Apple Intelligence in subsequent versions of iOS 18 will only increase.
Apple has published a guide for self-replacing the battery in the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus.
The most interesting part is the removal of the old battery. Previously, the company emphasized that it had simplified this procedure.
Now, a 9-volt battery and clamps are needed to remove the battery. The red wire is connected to the silver tab on the battery, and the black wire to the bottom right grounding screw on the lower speaker.
The wires must be held in place for 1 minute and 30 seconds to melt the adhesive under the battery. Apple warns that the longer the phone has been in use, the more time may be required to remove the battery.
Once the adhesive has melted, you can use a suction cup to remove the battery, and the remaining adhesive can be wiped away with an alcohol wipe.
In the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, three tabs must be pulled out with tweezers to remove the battery. This same design is used in other iPhones. Additionally, the speaker and Taptic Engine must be removed before taking out the battery, which is not necessary for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus.
The process for installing a new battery remains unchanged. It is also glued to the case and rolled under a press. [Apple]
Apple has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use AirPods Pro 2 as an over-the-counter hearing aid.
This is the first time the agency has granted such approval to an audio device not originally designed for this purpose.
AirPods Pro 2 will receive the hearing aid functionality this fall.
Apple has published a comprehensive list of 250 innovations that will appear in iOS 18.
It includes all changes to the operating system, even those that won’t be available at launch but only in iOS 18.1 (such as AI features) and later. Specifically, it lists all the Apple Intelligence features, like Genmoji and Image Playground.
The company also released a separate list of all new features in iPadOS 18.
Let’s recall that iOS 18 will become available for all supported devices starting on September 16. The same applies to other operating systems. [MacRumors]
American YouTubers Matthew Perkins and Arun Maini created a working replica of the iPhone 15 Pro, standing 2 meters tall and weighing 200 kg.
To achieve this, they used an 88-inch LG TV, which they converted into a touchscreen.
The bloggers then built the casing, using an aluminum frame as the base. They added functioning buttons, a speaker, and three cameras.
For the cameras, they used a Canon EOS R5 and a Sony RX10 Mark 4 to imitate the telephoto lens.
The only component they couldn’t replicate was iOS, as it is closed-source. So, the bloggers decided to use Android with an iOS-style launcher.
The result was a working phone that can take photos, send emails, run any apps, and make video calls. The entire project cost $70,000 [Engadget]
Six months ago, I decided to replace my well-used iPhone 13 Pro Max with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The main, if not the only reason, was simple: I just wanted a better camera.
The ability to shoot at the full 48 megapixels instead of the boring 12 MP promised a lot of benefits – at least better zoom and generally more detail in objects. Since I take many review photos with my iPhone, the camera has always been one of the most frequently used parts of my smartphone.
After six months, I’ve come to a sad conclusion. The camera system that Apple uses today, and by all rumors will continue using in the iPhone 16, is conceptually flawed and poorly thought out.
It’s not just that the camera modules and photo-processing algorithms in iOS have been falling behind Android flagships for several years. And it’s not just that some photos are better left unzoomed manually, especially when they contain text.
The real issue is how the company has spread out the focal lengths of the three lenses. It’s so illogical, it feels like we’re dealing with a budget Android smartphone, not a $1,500 device.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has three camera modules. I’ll list each one and point out the problem immediately:
▪ 0.5x ultra-wide: 12 MP, f/2.2, 13 mm
▪ 1x main: 48 MP, f/1.8, 24 mm
▪ 5x telephoto: 12 MP, f/2.8, 120 mm
These millimeters refer to the focal length, the distance from the center of the lens to the sensor, which determines the angle of view. The smaller the number, the wider the captured field of view in photos, and the larger the number, the closer distant objects appear. You can digitally zoom in on a shot by cropping it, but you can’t zoom out.
So, on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, there are three natural, non-cropped focal lengths: 13, 24, and 120 mm. In practice, together with the lens configurations and focusing system for each camera, this results in the following minimum distance before an object comes into focus: 3 mm, 10 cm, and… 3 meters, respectively. You can see the problem, right?
So, here’s the question. How can you take a close-up, high-quality shot of an object, including a person, standing in front of you at the most common distance for such photos – about one to one and a half meters – with the iPhone 15 Pro Max?
The simple answer is: you can’t. Or rather, you can, but it will be terrible, with AI filters, color distortions, and a degraded result due to the need to heavily crop the main camera’s output, which contains much less resolution and data than those supposed 48 megapixels.
You might think, “Who cares about this? It’s just some made-up problem for photography enthusiasts.” But it’s more widespread than you think.
You constantly have to move far back from small objects to a ridiculously inappropriate distance; otherwise, they either look bad in the photo, or the images are filled with artifacts and excessive AI post-processing. iPhone 15 Pro Max owners, does this sound familiar?
Let’s say I want to take a picture of a cake. I have two options. Either the cake will be shot up close with the main camera, and the lens’s geometric distortion will stretch it into an oval, while the lens itself captures a bunch of unnecessary things around the edges of the frame. Then I’ll have to crop the shot, fix the distortion in a third-party editor, and deal with other headaches.
Or, I step back three meters, after which the iPhone will finally switch to the telephoto lens, because the focal length is now appropriate. Voilà! The image is free of cropping artifacts, there’s no unnecessary clutter, and it’s not embarrassing to edit and post the result somewhere other than just social media where people see it only on a 6-inch screen.
I constantly find myself fighting with the iPhone camera, stepping far back from objects just to get the phone to switch to telephoto mode, so the shot comes out optically, geometrically, and aesthetically pleasing, at least reaching amateur level.
Is this convenient? Of course not. In many situations, you can’t physically move three meters away from the subject, and even if you do, it’s hard to maintain the desired frame and composition. When you have to stand on a chair just to take a decent picture on an expensive smartphone with three cameras, that’s a failure, not amazing.
Meanwhile, iPhone 15 Pro owners, who still have a telephoto lens with a 77 mm focal length, simply point their phone at the subject at a natural distance of one to one and a half meters, select the 3x mode in the Camera app, and press the shutter. No need to step back (with rare exceptions), everything looks decent, is in focus, without artifacts or AI nonsense.
If you don’t own an iPhone 15 Pro Max, this pain is still unknown to you. But the iPhone 16 Pro will also have a telephoto lens with a 120 mm focal length, just like the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Even more people will have to perform acrobatics just to take a decent photo of objects, say, on a table.
Personally, I won’t be buying the new iPhone until the company resolves the issue of objects at the most convenient shooting distance of one to one and a half meters being photographed only with a cropped main camera and awful AI algorithms. For the past three months, I’ve been taking photos for reviews on iPhones.ru (for example, here) far more often with my Android phone, which costs just 35,000 rubles – and has a much more thoughtfully selected set of cameras. The results make me much happier than what the iPhone produces.
Taking product shots with an iPhone is probably not a popular use case. I’m sure most people won’t take my complaint seriously, but I still felt it was important to share. Apple’s flagship has suddenly stopped being my go-to workhorse for this task, even though it’s been fine for the last three years. The chance that I’ll buy a more advanced Android camera flagship instead of the new iPhone has never been higher.
But at least Apple Intelligence is coming soon! Now that sounds useful.
A reliable source, has shared the final new color for the iPhone 16 Pro, which has been the subject of many rumors.
There have been various rumors about what the new flagship color will be, ranging from bronze to Microsoft Zune brown. Now, the source claims the shade will be golden, and their source accurately predicted the iPhone 15 Pro’s color last year.
If the shade isn’t exactly as shown, it will be very close to what they display in their render. Now, we just have to wait for the presentation on September 9th.
What do you think of this golden iPhone? Share your thoughts in the comments.
