My 5 personal highlights
A very exciting keynote yesterday. Of the innovations presented, I would like to highlight a few that I think are particularly useful and worth mentioning. Of course, “usefulness” is always in the eye of the beholder. My daughter certainly finds the new personalization options for the home screen, text effects in Messages and Image Playgrounds useful, but I think you know what I mean :-)
Apple Intelligence
With Apple Intelligence, Apple is also getting into the AI game and is announcing nothing less than an integration with ChatGPT. Anyone who already works with ChatGPT knows how powerful it is. And if 1 billion iOS users interact with ChatGPT in the future, the AI continues to learn and constantly improves, Siri will indeed develop into a personal assistant. The starting signal has been given. It's also very smart to call your own AI Apple Intelligence, or AI for short.
iPhone Mirroring
As I am constantly testing apps and screenshotting best practices, this is a game changer for me personally. Because in future I won't have to switch between Mac and iPhone to do this. Especially in the creative and business sector, there are many use cases for which iPhone mirroring is extremely useful.
SharePlay
Apple improves screen sharing and allows remote control, including the ability to draw on the “other” device. Anyone who often helps their parents with technical matters knows the problem. You are not on site and want to solve or explain something, which is sometimes difficult by phone or Facetime. This problem should now be solved.
Third-Party Apps
Apple is launching its own password manager, in future it will be possible to create hikes directly on Apple Maps, money can be easily transferred from device to device using Tap to Pay and personalized emojis can be created with just a few taps. All very useful use cases. However, Apple is once again moving into business areas that were previously occupied by third-party apps such as 1Password, Komoot, Paypal or Newji, putting its business model at risk. However, this has happened many times in the past (N26 vs Apple Card, Cycle Tracking vs Clue, Freeform vs Miro, to name but a few). In my opinion, the market is big enough and Apple is too broadly positioned to really pose an immediate threat here, but it remains to be seen.
Simplicity
Hardly anyone talks about it, but I always find it impressive how unbelievably and sometimes courageously “simple” Apple presents its products. On a “slide” there is a maximum of one product and two words, nothing more. The rest is on the soundtrack. This reduces the “cognitive load” immensely and ensures that the important messages are conveyed in the best possible way. It is in the nature of mankind to prefer simple products to complex ones. This also applies to simple onboarding, simple pricing models and simple sales pages. The only problem is that it is extremely difficult to make complex things look simple. Otherwise everyone would probably do it.
So those were my personal top 5. By the way, I think it's a shame that there are no more keynotes in the old style on stage. Due to coronavirus, Apple changed the format for the first time in 2020 and has remained true to the new style ever since. On the one hand, this is understandable from Apple's point of view, as it is more controllable and therefore less risky. On the other hand, in my opinion, a live keynote still has a different appeal than a movie.
Last but not least - why is Tim Cook always standing on the roof? If you know the answer to this question, please share it :-)
