By John Moltz
December 13, 2024 2:00 PM PT
This Week in Apple: The sincerest form of flattery
The Vision Pro gains some respect while Image Playground is a thing you can now use. Speaking of getting used, look out, Johny Srouji!
C:\ONGRTLNS.AXR
While sales of the Vision Pro may not be huge, Apple does have a couple of feathers to add to its figurative cap.
Does Tim Cook wear literal hats? Will have to research.
First, Popular Science has named Apple’s latest the “Innovation of the Year”. Apparently the “popular” part is judged on a sliding scale, adjusted by price.
Calling it “a new dimension for augmented reality”, Popular Science likes the cut of the Vision Pro’s jib and thinks the platform has potential.
So, if you’re going to copy, why not copy from the best? Yes, the Vision Pro is apparently at least good enough to warrant a Samsung copy. That counts as a feather, right? I mean… not like an eagle feather. Something from a more common bird. Pigeon. Budgie, maybe.
“This Vision Pro clone from Samsung and Google is good news for Apple users”
It weighs less, will probably cost less, and looks as much like a Vision Pro as you’ve come to expect from Samsung’s crack Apple copying team. Whether or not anyone will want to use Android XR, which is now built around AI after Google changed gears, is still a question.
Personally, I prefer to get Google’s AI to tell me to use gasoline to make spaghetti on the web, not my face.
The hellmouth at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley
Apple released iOS 18.2 with additional AI features this week, so now everyone (with a new enough iPhone) can… enjoy? That doesn’t seem like the right word. Let’s just say “experience”, that’s neutral enough. Experience the flabbergasting, twisted nightmare of the soul that is Image Playground.
Have you ever wanted to see computer-generated images of yourself that look a bit like you but also not like you, like staring into a funhouse mirror? Without the fun?
Well…, has Apple got an app for you.
As Jason and Dan’s review details, the interface for Image Playground is pretty good. The results are another matter. I could show you some images it generated of me to drive home the point… but looking at them, I would really rather not.
Apple also delivered Genmoji and some new writing and drawing… again “features” doesn’t seem right. We’ll just call them “things” until we can sort this out. It’s questionable why we really want AI to take over the fun parts of life, like being creative, rather than the drudgery like doing taxes.
When I asked Writing Tool to make that last sentence funnier, it came back with:
Why do we want AI to hog the fun stuff, like painting masterpieces, instead of letting it handle the snoozefest of doing taxes?
It’s not terrible but… I would definitely not say AI is painting any masterpieces. Don’t quit your day job, Apple Intelligence. Whatever that may be.
Inside Intel
Things are going great over at Intel, thanks for asking.
After the forced retirement of CEO Pat Gelsinger, Intel now apparently has its sights set on none other than Apple vice president of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji for the company’s new head honcho.
Personally I would love to hear that pitch.
“Hey, we know you’ve got a nice position with a highly successful company at the top of its processor game, buuut how’d you like to come captain this sinking rowboat being rowed in circles miles from land? Before you answer, you should know that the rowboat is also on fire.”
Sometimes it is nice to take on a challenge (and make a crapton of money doing it), but that didn’t work out so great for Ron Johnson when he went to run JC Penney. Be careful what you sign up for.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]