Apple Intelligence Upgrades for Siri Likely Pushed Back to iOS 18.5

[maykiiii16]

Apple has been using AI and a “SMARTER” siri to market their new devices since the iPhone 16 launch. It’s been 6 months now since the iPhone 16 series was released, and I’m still underwhelmed with iOS 18 and the Apple Intelligence feature rollout. Apple feels very much behind compared with how the competitors are progressing.

What’s happening Tim?

 

[Mike_Trivisonno]

Will an AI enhanced MacOS be able to remember where I place my sticky notes, calendar app, and contacts app after I re boot?

Cause it's been over a decade and MacOs is still too stupid to store and restore window positions. Sad really.

 

[citysnaps]

Apple is falling apart faster than a pie at a pie-eating contest. Siri is like a magician who only gets the trick right 10% of the time. I’ve discovered that if you say “Siri, ask ChatGPT,” you’ll actually get results, but don’t expect to interact or turn up the volume—Siri will just ghost you.

iPhones are getting worse than a bad hair day. The battery life needs more focus to win over the new market. IMO, I’m tired of hearing about new features announced prematurely just to create buzz. Tim, you’re not as exciting as Steve Jobs. I know you’re smart, but you sound like you’re explaining how paint dries when you talk about products. It’s information, sure, but wouldn’t it be cool if you brought in Woz to do a few announcements? That would really make an impression.

Does anybody else miss Ive’s killer monologues about new designs? They were more captivating. I feel somehow he would’ve made even the Vision Pro more appealing.

I'm far more interested in Apple products than Apple CEOs.

With that aside, under Cook's leadership, Apple is now one of the most successful tech companies in the world with 2+ Billion active and repeat customers. And that Apple manufactures and sells roughly 600,000 iPhones per day (on the average). That speaks volumes about Apple products people love to buy, year after year after year.

As an aside... I am reminded about Apple Lisa, Apple HiFi, Apple G4 Mac Cube, Apple QuickTake Camera, and Apple iPod Sox. But those were developed and sold under the leadership of the previous CEO.

 

[Nickerbocker]

I just want to have the feature that lets Siri make an appointment based on what is on the screen. I feel like I'm constantly working out the details of an appointment in a text or email and then re-entering all that information into an appointment. The AI should just read what is on my screen and figure it out.

 

[Fraserpatty]

Id be happy if they fixed the Siri listening hanging issue. If I tell siri to text someone, let me hit the freaking send button and just send it, instead the send button just doesn't respond because Siri is still listening until she stops hearing noises.

I have had complete success by saying thank you after I have finished my question and no longer need her to listen. She’ll say something like you’re welcome or whatever and then she turns off. I really like it this way because frequently I have more than one thing to ask at a time But she will turn off when I tell her thank you.

 

[9081094]

Well yeah, my personal experience. And all the articles I've read. And the lack of usage I've seen of any of this in the real world since it was released.

Are you the happy, regular user of Genmoji and Image Playground I've been looking for? Can you tell me about how it has enriched your life more than an improved Siri would have? You endorse this use of developer resources?

He’s from The Netherlands like me and I can assure you he can’t be happy with it because it’s not even available over here 😉

I totally agree with you that what’s available with Apple Intelligence today in the countries where it is released it’s a joke compared to what the competition is already offering and Apple Intelligence has little to do with real AI.

 

[9081094]

lol that’s 100% not the reason for it. The car project was canceled in early 2023 or late 2022 and well before it ever broke in any news cycles.

And in the meantime Huawei managed to release an EV that already is in high demand in China. Like other more complex technologies it seems like Apple is not up for it. They keep relying on a chip swap and a color change and smear those incremental updates out over a two year timeframe.

 

[9081094]

Apple advertising the iPhone 16 with Apple Intelligence… and the 17 will be out before Apple Intelligence is 100%.

According to the same Mark Gurman a real Siri 2.0 update will come out with iOS 19.4. More than a year from now. I’m curious what the competition has to offer by that time. They all already have a good working intelligent assistant.

I think Siri 2.0 will be a Siri with ChatGPT integration. It’s not even Apple’s own invention and nothing they could excel the competition with.

 

[9081094]

Please decide. 18.4 or 18.5 or 2026?

It’s iOS 19.4 and 2026 according to Gurman and that’s no joke!

 

[9081094]

"Now Apple will flail hopelessly as the big AI companies make gods in the cloud."

It looks like you didn't read the story where Apple is investing $500 Billion, much of that in AI creating a server manufacturing facility in Texas. Whose servers will then be distributed over the US and other countries. All to implement Apple's private and secure AI structure.

As I’m from Europe I don’t trust an American company running my data in the USA. It must be local and in Europe.

 

[9081094]

Macrumors when Apple rushes stuff: torches and pitchforks.
Macrumors when Apple takes their time for stuff: torches and pitchforks.


I would strongly prefer they take their time on this AI stuff.

Normally I woud agree with Apple taking their time to release good and stable products/software.

At the moment they are hopelessly behind competitors who managed to deliver now what Apple is promising for 2026? 2027?

Apple can’t wait that long to stay relevant in the business.

 

[citysnaps]

As I’m from Europe I don’t trust an American company running my data in the USA. It must be local and in Europe.

No worries, mate. You're not required to use it.

Perhaps purchasing a European made mobile phone linked to European AI servers would be good.

 

[9081094]

I don’t think anyone ever wanted an Apple car and Apple seems to be strongest when it produces personal computing products.

The error I think was in starting this project in the first place.

Apple still thinks/behaves like they are on the forefront of new technologies while in reality they are far behind.

The Apple car was a big ego thing and they were confronted later in the timeframe by much better offerings from Tesla and Chinese manufacturers.

 

[citysnaps]

Apple still thinks/behaves like they are on the forefront of new technologies while in reality they are far behind.

The Apple car was a big ego thing and they were confronted later in the timeframe by much better offerings from Tesla and Chinese manufacturers.

Can you provide more insight on your first claim with details. Where Apple is regarding AI in the manner Apple choses to implement it, etc. Exactly how far is Apple behind? Apple is investing $500 Billion, a good chunk of which is creating an AI server manufacturing facility in the US, that will produce a large number of AI servers distributed across the US and other countries.

Regarding Apple Car... Apple determined that the burden of a 100% tariff on EVs manufactured in China announced in early 2024, and thus costing customers 2X Apple's retail price (likely > $100,000) would not make a feasible business case. And thus cancelled the project 1 month after the tariff was announced.

 

[dduraznito]

It's crazy how Apple had Siri introduced with the iPhone 4S 14 years ago and they lept on that for so long. Had they put any effort into it, it could have been the best AI assistant. Instead, they let others innovate and then tried to catch up ignoring it takes years to develop something that's actually usable and useful. This is even crazier considering Apple is known for waiting and doing it better. Siri and AI to me feel the most un-Apple things to have witnessed in the past few years.

 

[Tagbert]

Clearly he does. Apple AI is OpenAi. It's LITERALLY ChatGPT in your phone, doing dumb things Apple thinks it can allow you to do, like create a barfing unicorn with a poop emoji hat. Oh wait. Does it do that yet or is it in TBR limbo as well?

ChatGPT is not used for any of the Apple Intelligence functions. Not Genmoji, not Image playgrounds, not the writing tools, not the email grouping. ChatGPT is only used as an external data source for some fact questions that Siri may hand off to ChatGPT.

 

[JohnRckr]

Over the past 3 months I got rid of every Apple product I had except for AirTag and iPhone, and boy it feels good to be almost out of this eco system hellhole for which we have to pay premium

 

[bmustaf]

Man, I have really, really wanted to like Apple Intelligence. I have wanted to like the tiny, piecemeal improvements to Siri and wanted to fool myself they were advancements (and not things long overdue).

My personal devices are all Apple, I have preferred them for almost 2 decades now, however, my work phone is a Pixel 9, and it's far from perfect, but at least it has modern AI somewhat integrated into the UI, but compared to Siri/Apple Intelligence, it's *incredible*.

It is laughable and comical how bad Siri and Apple Intelligence are at this point, they are easily outperformed by any number of open source, MIT licenses GitHub and/or HuggingFace projects out of the box, that have equal or better privacy protections, too, the only difference/moat being that Apple artificially limits internal API usage/access for UI/internal app integrations, otherwise were would quite literally be no reason not to simply use those.

 

[9081094]

Can you provide more insight on your first claim with details. Where Apple is regarding AI in the manner Apple choses to implement it, etc. Exactly how far is Apple behind? Apple is investing $500 Billion, a good chunk of which is creating an AI server manufacturing facility in the US, that will produce a large number of AI servers distributed across the US and other countries.

Regarding Apple Car... Apple determined that the burden of a 100% tariff on EVs manufactured in China announced in early 2024, and thus costing customers 2X Apple's retail price (likely > $100,000) would not make a feasible business case. And thus cancelled the project 1 month after the tariff was announced.

To answer your comment on my first claim, have a look how terrible apples AI is with cleaning up photo’s compared to Samsung:

It’s nice that Apple is investing $ 500 billion into the US but that gives us nothing now. I say particularly now because now is needed and Apple is very vague in where, what and when it is investing. It looks more like an action to please your government.

About the car… Apple had several talks with other carmakers to produce the car. All rejected Apple. If Apple was serious and “far ahead” they could build factories wherever they please to avoid tariffs. But as Siri is still a disaster today, what kind of car would you get with an assistant that has the brain of a worm.

Asking siri to take you somewhere is asking for a disaster.

I thought they would use the R&D for project Titan to make Apple CarPlay much more useful and assumed CarPlay would make a big leap. Instead I’ve yet to see one carmaker seeing implementing it.

 

[MrGimper]

The “Apple Intelligence” iPhone 16 push was such a con. We all got duped.

It’s a shambles really.

Lucky Siri is more of a shambles. Makes the Apple Maps debacle look like an absolute win.

 

[9081094]

Over the past 3 months I got rid of every Apple product I had except for AirTag and iPhone, and boy it feels good to be almost out of this eco system hellhole for which we have to pay premium

This year I’m trying to do the same. There is literally nothing compelling to stay in the overpriced ecosystem to justify it anymore.

 

[chrono1081]

I have had complete success by saying thank you after I have finished my question and no longer need her to listen. She’ll say something like you’re welcome or whatever and then she turns off. I really like it this way because frequently I have more than one thing to ask at a time But she will turn off when I tell her thank you.

Oh that's interesting, I didn't know about the thank you thing.

 

[CygnusTC]

I would be happy if I could just turn my living room lights on consistently without Siri telling me I have to search the internet for that…..It’s 2025 and with all of Apples resources and money what an embarrassment!!!

 

[Tagbert]

I would be happy if I could just turn my living room lights on consistently without Siri telling me I have to search the internet for that…..It’s 2025 and with all of Apples resources and money what an embarrassment!!!

Siri seems to be sensitive to how you make the request. I use Siri to turn on/off lights multiple times a day with no problems. My spouse tends to issue semi randomly constructed statements and is surprised when Siri doesn't respond correctly.

 

[I7guy]

Well yeah, my personal experience. And all the articles I've read. And the lack of usage I've seen of any of this in the real world since it was released.

Are you the happy, regular user of Genmoji and Image Playground I've been looking for? Can you tell me about how it has enriched your life more than an improved Siri would have? You endorse this use of developer resources?

Genmoji is fun. I’m not a fan of digital assistants. Starting with Alexa. I do use Siri to respond to texts in my Tesla though.

Whether one has zero interest in AI or can't sleep waiting for it, the core issue is that Siri is a joke of a service / product and the fact that Apple under Cook either cannot improve it or simply does not care is shocking. But it still has its defenders, a couple of whom will undoubtedly chime in shortly.

Sure here we are facing off against the critics.

And in the meantime Huawei managed to release an EV that already is in high demand in China. Like other more complex technologies it seems like Apple is not up for it. They keep relying on a chip swap and a color change and smear those incremental updates out over a two year timeframe.

Sure it’s easy to release an ev. It’s much harder to release one that won’t fall apart and fits within an established framework. You can have my reservation.