Apple Seeds First iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia Public Betas With Apple Intelligence

[jbachandouris]

Well, I was trying to revert to 18 so that I can restore from backup tomorrow but of course I can't get it into DFU mode. They obviously don't want us doing it.
15 Pro Max
Got it. Such a pain.

 

[Robert.Walter]

i mean, it will continue to do exactly what you paid for when it was advertised. and it will continue to do so very well for quite a while as smartphones have become pretty powerful.

declaring that apple made an [expletive] move in not disclosing their future plans is just ignorant thinking. companies have no obligation to disclose R&D of unreleased/unannounced products and endeavours before they're ready to deploy. you havent been conned into making a purchase of something you didnt want, and it's not like what you have will be taken away from you.

"i'd have waited if i knew blah would come up" then just dont buy new tech. there's *always* a reason to not buy the current thing by that thinking.

"if i would have known the phone was going to essentially be cut off after two years"

that is patently absurd, and you're just whining at that point. again, it's going to continue doing exactly what it was setup to do, it wont be doing any of the advanced AI features you were never promised in the first place. and apparently you were happy enough with it to get the device as it was advertised to you at the time of purchase. knowing people that are still on iPhone 8's (!!!) happily to this day, i'm pretty sure your iPhone 14 is going to work fantastically for quite some time.

no, it will not take advantage of some new upcoming features. that is quite literally common practice, and something that happens every single year. your phone was bound to *not* do something

"...your phone was bound to *not* do something..."

So much this. It's like one complaining they bought and enjoyed a donut for two years and were disappointed that they didn't get the jelly donut.

 

[outz]

You bought your phone based on its feature set at the time. If you base your decision on what software will be available in 2 years, the only person to blame is the one staring back at you in the mirror.

Apple Intelligence is one of the few "heavy" features that requires minimum hardware specs to run well. Would it run on your 14 Pro? Probably, but with compromises that would fuel even more complaints.

I understand the point about buying a device for its current features, I respectfully disagree with the overall sentiment.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is a high end device that's only two years old. Many consumers invest in premium products with the reasonable expectation of continued software support and feature updates. Apple has traditionally been good about supporting older devices with new features when possible.

Regarding the hardware requirements, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has the A16 Bionic chip, which is still a very capable. Without real concrete information regarding the specific hardware needs for Apple Intelligence, it's a bit premature to assume it couldn't run well on this device.

The timing of the feature release compared to new hardware announcements feels like it could be more about marketing strategy than technical limitations. Releasing a new phone before the feature is even available, then restricting the feature to only the newest models, seems to push consumers towards unnecessary upgrades.

No one is entitled to every new feature indefinitely, but I think it's fair for consumers to express disappointment when relatively recent, high end devices are excluded from significant software updates. It's not just about what was promised at purchase, but also about perceived value and longevity of premium products.

 

[johngordon]

I am sure they knew AI will come, when the 14 Pro was released.

I guess back in 2022 they should have magically specced their phones with hardware available in 2024?

 

[Rogifan]

OK, clean up needs a lot of work. Not one photo that I tried it on worked.

 

[johngordon]

I understand the point about buying a device for its current features, I respectfully disagree with the overall sentiment.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is a high end device that's only two years old. Many consumers invest in premium products with the reasonable expectation of continued software support and feature updates. Apple has traditionally been good about supporting older devices with new features when possible.

Regarding the hardware requirements, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has the A16 Bionic chip, which is still a very capable. Without real concrete information regarding the specific hardware needs for Apple Intelligence, it's a bit premature to assume it couldn't run well on this device.

The timing of the feature release compared to new hardware announcements feels like it could be more about marketing strategy than technical limitations. Releasing a new phone before the feature is even available, then restricting the feature to only the newest models, seems to push consumers towards unnecessary upgrades.

No one is entitled to every new feature indefinitely, but I think it's fair for consumers to express disappointment when relatively recent, high end devices are excluded from significant software updates. It's not just about what was promised at purchase, but also about perceived value and longevity of premium products.

Given that Apple are generally pretty good at supporting older hardware, it seems reasonable to think they had good reasons not to in this case

 

[Rogifan]

I understand the point about buying a device for its current features, I respectfully disagree with the overall sentiment.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is a high end device that's only two years old. Many consumers invest in premium products with the reasonable expectation of continued software support and feature updates. Apple has traditionally been good about supporting older devices with new features when possible.

Regarding the hardware requirements, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has the A16 Bionic chip, which is still a very capable. Without real concrete information regarding the specific hardware needs for Apple Intelligence, it's a bit premature to assume it couldn't run well on this device.

The timing of the feature release compared to new hardware announcements feels like it could be more about marketing strategy than technical limitations. Releasing a new phone before the feature is even available, then restricting the feature to only the newest models, seems to push consumers towards unnecessary upgrades.

No one is entitled to every new feature indefinitely, but I think it's fair for consumers to express disappointment when relatively recent, high end devices are excluded from significant software updates. It's not just about what was promised at purchase, but also about perceived value and longevity of premium products.

This is the problem with Apple being stingy with RAM. Who knows how long 8GB will be enough to run AI stuff.

 

[9081094]

I wonder how long 8GB RAM will be enough? The Pixel 9 has 12GB RAM and the 9 Pro has 16GB. The Galaxy S24 Ultra has 12GB.

Probably till next year. iOS 19 needs 12gb RAM 🫢

 

[Devyn89]

Question: will the AI features in 18.1 Beta work outside of the US? Canada is not expected to get the features until end of year officially, but is this a way to get access to them beforehand?

If you install the beta and set device and Siri language to US English everything works. Should be able to set it back in December.

 

[Remy149]

Cannot obviously be totally certain, but there is a release I believe of iOS 18.1 beta for the 16 devices.

If you're going to restore a backup as you are already running 18.1, then you'll need to install the beta on your new phone prior to restoring. Likely means setting up as new first, installing the beta, then erase all contents and settings. Set up again. Restore.

Last year when I upgraded it asked if I wanted to install the beta during setup

 

[Remy149]

The 18.1 version of Siri is laughable. Absolutely useless, no wonder they paid for ChatGPT (if you believe they didn’t you’re dumb).

Siri hasn’t got the upgrade itself yet it’s still the same Siri we always had

 

[NotApplicable]

Turned it on on my Mac and activated it (waitlist was like 60 seconds)

According to article, this means all my devices will be through the waitlist. So I’ll install the beta on my 16PM tomorrow and it should work right away

Keeping my 15PM on 18.0 til then for easy migration

 

[Remy149]

I appreciate that Apple is taking their time to get AI right.

But I do admit to being confused by the lack of glow for Siri after updating my 13 Pro. Is the Glow only going to show up on "supported" devices, and the rest of us still get the Siri "orb"?

I was immensely impressed by how quickly iOS 18 installed. It was done in 15 minutes. I was like "It's done?"

Running great.

The glow will only be with Apple intelligence turned on

 

[Macaholic868]

I understand the point about buying a device for its current features, I respectfully disagree with the overall sentiment.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is a high end device that's only two years old. Many consumers invest in premium products with the reasonable expectation of continued software support and feature updates. Apple has traditionally been good about supporting older devices with new features when possible.

Regarding the hardware requirements, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has the A16 Bionic chip, which is still a very capable. Without real concrete information regarding the specific hardware needs for Apple Intelligence, it's a bit premature to assume it couldn't run well on this device.

The timing of the feature release compared to new hardware announcements feels like it could be more about marketing strategy than technical limitations. Releasing a new phone before the feature is even available, then restricting the feature to only the newest models, seems to push consumers towards unnecessary upgrades.

No one is entitled to every new feature indefinitely, but I think it's fair for consumers to express disappointment when relatively recent, high end devices are excluded from significant software updates. It's not just about what was promised at purchase, but also about perceived value and longevity of premium products.

I tend to agree with your sentiment. Unfortunately your phone needs 8 GB of RAM for Apple Intelligence to function. The iPhone 14 Pro Max only has 6 GB of RAM. While I think 6 GB is a joke for a phone that costs north of $1,000 that’s the decision Apple made at the time they shipped the hardware.

I’ve long thought Apple’s tendency to ship “Pro” devices with what I and most others consider to be an underwhelming amount of RAM is dumb considering the Apple Tax we all pay for their hardware but they do it regularly.

Look at the M3 MacBook “Pro” units that only ship with 8 GB of RAM. I’m sorry but calling anything with only 8 GB of RAM, even if it’s “magic” Apple RAM, a “Pro” system is IMO a joke.

Unfortunately for iPhone users we’re not given a choice of how much RAM we want in their “Pro” phones so I get where you’re coming from and believe it’s a valid beef but at the same time I can’t tell you the decision makers at Apple saw AI and its RAM implications coming and I think if the cameras were turned off, nobody was quoting them and you were talking to them 1 on 1 they’d tell you if they saw it coming they would have bumped up the RAM in the 14 Pro and Pro Max but I doubt they saw it coming.

It’s pretty clear to me that the AI “innovation wave” (or whatever you want to call it) caught them off guard. If you had the 15 Pro and were looking at the developer betas you’d see it. What’s there is nice but they are clearly just scratching the surface and are still way behind their competitors on the AI front. By the time they catch up you might be ready for a new device anyway. I think we’re looking at some release in the iOS 19 department before they are caught up with the competition based on all talk about it being the spring of next year before the public can even see all of what they are planning for iOS 18.

 

[Eorlas]

Regarding the hardware requirements, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has the A16 Bionic chip, which is still a very capable. Without real concrete information regarding the specific hardware needs for Apple Intelligence, it's a bit premature to assume it couldn't run well on this device.

and equally near-sighted to demand that it be offered the same feature-set simply because people think it's "good enough."

if it were given to the 14pro, the 13 users would have the same tears to cry.

apple giving out specific details as to why the 15 can, and the 14 cannot, can also make it easier for competitors to develop competing products. apple doesnt *really* owe anyone an explanation.

moreover, apple doesnt generally explain itself anyway. and apple's notorious for excluding older devices from newer features on the basis of hardware requirements. we're 16 iterations into the iphone with people still whining about this, eventually the customer is the only one to blame if they're still having this complaint.

AI is the only thing to care about here. iOS 18 otherwise is supported all the way back to the iPhone XR, which is a 6 year old phone.

so....anyone with this complaint is absolutely being a toddler that's crying because another kid got a bigger lollipop a week after they already had one themself.

 

[cutlub]

As said before, the phone specs are locked in 12-18 months before launch, and the AI race caught Apple flat-footed. We know that's why they cancelled the car project and moved all the engineers over to software development. They initially planned to ship these devices with Apple Intelligence, but they couldn't make the deadline. Glow Time marketing was locked, so they had to proceed ahead. They're going as fast as they can, but still a long road ahead.

I'm no Gurman, but a couple of Android tidbits: the Gemini deal is happening. We knew that, but can confirm its coming soon. Tokyo, Kyoto, London, NYC are the largest Pixel markets. Oddly, it might be rebranded—don't know why—but it's being considered. They're seeing a lucrative foldables market , which is why they're opening new stores in Japan and two in India. Well known Google kills any product that doesn't gross $1B. Apple follows a similar path, but instead of discontinuing a product, they don't update them as often. If you're wondering why certain Apple products haven't been updated regualrly (APM's, MP's, MS's), it's because they aren't meeting a similar threshold.

 

[Dustin10]

Found the answer to the installation issue a few seconds ago. @edon postet in the developer thread that:

If you’re having trouble installing macOS 15.1 Beta 4, try turning off the Find My Mac and Network features. That might just fix the issue for you!

Thanks to him I was able to install macOS 15.1 beta. Big applause from my side to him.

You are fantastic. This has 100% fixed my MBP M2 problem!

 

[Adora]

Go get it

I only have an SE 2020 and 2022 and don't need AI. But I'll try this MisakaX. Thanks.

 

[AppleTO]

Regarding the hardware requirements, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has the A16 Bionic chip, which is still a very capable. Without real concrete information regarding the specific hardware needs for Apple Intelligence, it's a bit premature to assume it couldn't run well on this device.

Each and every year Apple presents their latest and greatest chip. Along with this, they prepare large amounts of marketing material to help present how innovative and powerful the new chip is. Yet, in the next year or two they start excluding new features from devices from the chip.

I understand all the commenters saying to not expect anything more than what your device was originally advertised with, but Apple clearly advertises these devices as more powerful than most laptops. But despite their power, they want us to believe they can’t run software released a couple years later. This is practically unheard of in the rest of the industry, and especially considering the relatively slow CPU development of the past 7-8 years.

 

[AppleTO]

Unfortunately your phone needs 8 GB of RAM for Apple Intelligence to function.

Only because they have purposely made it that way to exclude older devices.

Models with less RAM could rely more on their servers, which are advertised to be just as secure, to fulfill requests.

Remember, Apple has been advertising these devices as more powerful than most laptops for years now. They release a new all powerful chip, which is questionably insufficient a couple years later.

 

[Adora]

Only because they have purposely made it that way to exclude older devices.

Models with less RAM could rely more on their servers, which are advertised to be just as secure, to fulfill requests.

Remember, Apple has been advertising these devices as more powerful than most laptops for years now. They release a new all powerful chip, which is questionably insufficient a couple years later.

I don't support this pricing anymore for iDevices and only buy used/refurbished old stuff from 3rd-party sellers.

On Mac it's something else but if they will keep going on with those RAM and storage upgrade prices. They will lose me there too.

It's all getting out of price range for average people. In Germany most people call Apple stuff already luxury since many years and are making fun of people buying it.

 

[krspkbl]

Probably till next year. iOS 19 needs 12gb RAM 🫢

We’re going to see RAM requirements increase significantly across any device that uses on device AI.

I’m surprised 8GB is enough to run iOS and do on device AI. 8GB is basically nothing even for phones when it comes to AI. I’m impressed Apple can work with 8GB…but by the time all Apple Intelligence features come out the iPhone 17 will be nearly here lol

Next year we’re definitely gonna see iPhone with 12GB and the year after that probably 12GB minimum on all models with Pros going to 16GB.

 

[jdawgnoonan]

Sucks for all of us with unsupported phones. We're probably going to get next to nothing new for the foreseeable future as everything they release is going to be Apple Intelligence based. Just watch as every new feature going forwards is going to "require" Apple Intelligence.

It's a pretty **** move to all of us that purchased 14 Pros. I would have held off another year if I would have known the phone was going to essentially be cut off after two years.

Apple will give you a good trade in value if you own the phone and go to the store.

 

[cutlub]

I cannot get a single feature to work. Only thing I’m getting is the new Siri animation and type to Siri. Every thing else gives me an error. Unable to summarize. Try again later. Certain capabilities not available at this time. Unreal.

 

[PhireWare]

Configure the new iPhone without transferring any data, upgrade to the beta > factory reset and then it will allow you to restore from iCloud.

Don’t even need to do that anymore… setup new phone… it recognizes that the latest backup was using a beta version of the OS… the phone will ask to update to the beta version, then it’ll continue the setup process.