Will You Look Away From AI As Apple Showcases Shiny New Hardware? — Beyond Tomorrow

At the iPhone 16 launch last year, AI was front and centre. Last night's Apple event, which was billed as "awe dropping", celebrated some cutting-edge hardware but AI was largely missing from the party.

Sure, Apple execs did mention AI a few times, but the excitement was all about the shiny new hardware Apple was launching. And of course, once it became clear that the "Air" rumours were true, everyone’s minds were shifted to the new iPhone Air. It certainly looks gorgeous at first glance. The slim form factor did remind me of the iPhones of the past like the iPhone 6 which debuted 11 years ago. But that was 6.99 mm thick while the iPhone Air is a mere 5.6 mm thick. Until the camera bump of course.

While some may wonder why it should take 10 years to shave off a little over a millimetre, the power and performance of the Air is far ahead of iPhones from a decade ago and it is no easy task to reduce thickness while multiplying features and performance. And while there are questions on battery life and the camera itself, the excitement around the iPhone Air is visible. We will have to wait and see whether that translates into sales, because to most of us today a millimetre or two doesn't matter but what's more important is what your smartphone can do, and that is arguably about the software and apps on it and specifically today, about AI running on your smartphone.

But you can’t blame Apple for focusing on shiny hardware when their AI strategy is being rebooted and may not be quite ready for the masses yet. We are still waiting for a personalised Siri from Apple. So, Air, the new iPhone 17 models, the A19 Pro chips to newer cameras was where the action was — the hardware innovation that caught my interest was the new square camera sensor, which means you no longer need to rotate an iPhone to click a landscape selfie.

Contrast Apple's approach with Google and Samsung though, whose flagship smartphones are AI first. You’d know the Google Pixel 10 is almost a replica of the Pixel 9. Of course, there are camera and processor enhancements in the Pixel 10s but there are so many new features on the software side — and mostly leveraging AI — that the new hardware enhancements don't take pride of place. The visible difference between Apple's event and Google's recent event launching the Pixels is the focus on hardware at Apple, while Google was all about AI.

One AI-driven feature on Apple I heard about yesterday and which I am really excited about wasn’t about the new iPhones but the new AirPods Pro 3. If two users are sporting these pods and one is speaking in German and the other in English, it translates the other person’s language in real time and you hear it on the AirPods. Even if one person has the AirPods Pro 3 and speaks in Spanish, the second person can view the translated English text instantly on an iPhone. Unfortunately, no Indian language support has been announced yet but it shouldn’t be very far away. The AirPods Pro also features an AI model to track exercise and the Apple Watch, too, has been boosted with a hypertension detection feature that may well ensure that hypertension is no longer a silent killer for those with the latest Apple hardware on their wrists.

But Apple has ensured its hardware is AI-ready. One of the few times Apple execs mentioned AI was when delivering their spiel on the new A19 Pro processors and how it is built for AI workloads. Of course, with the rumours of a big Apple acquisition to reboot its AI strategy or other rumours about Apple considering using Google's Gemini under Siri's hood, this could mean Apple focuses on the hardware while we get the choice to use third-party AI tools. Which isn’t something we aren’t used to. For instance, on my iPhone, I don't use Apple's mail, maps and office suite, and while I use iCloud, I use Google Drive to a far greater extent across all my devices. Let's not even get into search. So why not on AI?

With that though, here are some of the top AI-related reads from the past few days:

• Why Do We Need To Invest In Infrastructure Beneath Foundation Models

• AI's Path To Profits Is Being Driven By Consumers

• China Launches ‘Brain-Inspired’ AI Model That Runs 100 Times Faster Without Nvidia Chips

• India And Singapore Deepen AI, Chips Ties As US Tariff Risks Grow

• Buyback Over Breakthroughs? When Infosys Missed OpenAI Investment Opportunity

• Nvidia Unveils New Chip System For AI Video, Software Creation

• Entire History Of You? Two Harvard Students Unveil AI-Powered Glasses That Can Record Your Memory

• China Unveils Plan To Accelerate Integration Of AI With Energy Sector

• OpenAI Says Spending To Rise To $115 Billion Through 2029

• US Authors Sue Apple For Alleged Use Of Their Books To Train AI Models

• This AI Semiconductor Stock Hits An All-Time High, Surging Over 50% In A Week — Here's Why

• OpenAI Plans Jobs Platform, Certification Program For AI Roles

• China's DeepSeek Preps AI Agent For End-2025 To Rival OpenAI

• WhatsApp Releases AI-Generated Backgrounds For Video Chats: How To Use And Key Features

• Google Nano Banana 3D Model Trend Prompt: How To Generate Cool 3D Figurines For Yourself?

• ChatGPT Dating Advice: Girlfriend Of ‘Godfather of AI’ Used ChatGPT To Tell Him Why She Was Breaking Up

Till next week,

Ivor Soans

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of NDTV Profit or its editorial team.