67 ms·

Apple software update “bug” enables Apple Intelligence

124 points by walterbell 2y ago

greyface- 2y ago
I associate this sort of disrespectful crapware auto-opt-in behavior with Windows, not macOS. Times are changing.
- JKCalhoun 2y ago
  Full disclosure: I retired from Apple several years ago — but I'm going to call it a bug. But I don't say that with any joy. I find the OS(es) to be getting buggier and buggier and I am saddened by that.
- userbinator 2y ago
  Apple was never shy about telling users what they can and cannot do. The only difference is perception.
- GeekyBear 2y ago
  Office 365 just opted users into AI features without prompting, and started charging an additional monthly premium for the "privilege". That certainly raises the bar.
  - saratogacx 2y ago
    It gets better. Once you opt-out and get the "classic" plan, you are stuck with the AI features until the next billing cycle. They pulled this stunt at month 2 of my sub so I've got these AI "credits" I don't want and can't get rid of until November.
- WhyNotHugo 2y ago
  iOS also has ads now, thought they're called "Siri suggestions". The most notable one I saw was a recommendation to download the KFC widget on my iOS home screen. As someone who's never been to KFC, and never used either their website or app, this "suggestion" is indistinguishable from an ad. Apparently this is triggered due to being "in close proximity" of a KFC (e.g.: due to walking through a mall). You can disable these ads, but they're enabled by default.
pier25 2y ago
These PMs of AI features are going to ridiculous lengths to improve their KPIs /s
zombiwoof 2y ago
Does it come with a forced installed U2 album?
- adolph 2y ago
  in skeuomophic brushed metal held the wrong way
- simondotau 2y ago
  But think of the thousands of U2 fans who were delighted
mulletbum 2y ago
Apple has had a Bluetooth software issues in ios 17 and 18 that makes both 15 Pro Max and 16 Pro Max randomly disconnect Bluetooth and all sorts of weird issues. They waited over a year to finally address it in 18.3, then proceeded to break Bluetooth now where it just all together disconnects over and over. Apple has gone WAY down hill.
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  Bluetooth has sucked since it was introduced. I've never had a Bluetooth anything that worked well and reliably. We need a total rethink on close-range wireless communication for accessory devices. Preferably something patented with an expensive license so fly-by-night chinese hardware shops can't dump their garbage on the market using that protocol.
  - 6SixTy 2y ago
    There is an alternative protocol for wireless communications, only problem is that it's Chinese. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42443750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42443750
    - lesuorac 2y ago
      Aren't like all of the Bluetooths alternative wireless protocols to themselves? It's not like you can use a Bluetooth classic device to connect to Bluetooth low energy. Then there's also like Zigbee and etc; I don't think the world is hurting for wireless protocols. Everybody has their own new standard that'll be able to replace the rest lol.
      - 6SixTy 2y ago
        Difference is that Zigbee etc aren't vying for the same place that StarFlash/Nearlink,etc is for Bluetooth
  - jwr 2y ago
    That kind of generalizing isn't helpful and isn't true, either. I am sorry you didn't have a "Bluetooth anything" that worked reliably. I did. In fact, everything that I own that uses Bluetooth works very well. There are two important things about Bluetooth. 1. There are actually two kinds of Bluetooth. The "traditional" mostly connection-oriented Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). They share very little with each other, except for the marketing name. BLE works way better in practice. Many people still remember their old headsets that used Bluetooth and that took ages to connect to their phones and associate those with the "Bluetooth experience". 2. Bluetooth is complex. Many manufacturers get it wrong. But the problem is not with Bluetooth. You could invent a different set of protocols, and if they were to do everything that Bluetooth does, they would get very complex as well, and we would have the same problem, except in a less popular and less broadly adopted protocol.
AnonC 2y ago
It seems like Apple wants to push Apple Intelligence (with all its flaws) to all the devices it has deemed worthy of using it. The increase in this kind of user hostile behavior and dark patterns aren’t going to help the company. Tangentially, I think Apple could gain a lot by employing Jeff Johnson (the author of this and other posts) for improving the user experience of its products and services. I’m not sure if Jeff would find it fulfilling though.
- khana 2y ago
  [dead]
- walterbell 2y ago
  improving the user experience of its products and services Bounty program for inspecfluencers whose independent publications lead to product improvements? In theory, employee QA and customer bugs/radars serve the same function, minus transparency on the reasons for action or inaction. If each annoying bug was a tradeable financial instrument, then annoyance could be quantified and fixes incentivized.
- lapcat 2y ago
  > Tangentially, I think Apple could gain a lot by employing Jeff Johnson (the author of this and other posts) for improving the user experience of its products and services. I’m not sure if Jeff would find it fulfilling though. I'm not special, just loud. If Apple cared enough to hire me, they wouldn't need to hire me.
  - dstroot 2y ago
    >”If Apple cared enough to hire me, they wouldn't need to hire me.“ Take my upvote. Love it.
fmajid 2y ago
That, and the constant shilling for their useless services like Apple News or Apple Fitness
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
I am very tired of the dark patterns used by all these monopolies. Windows pushing Edge. Apple trying to make me use Siri or subscribe to their game service. Google pushing Gemini. Enough is enough. We need new antitrust laws.
- onetokeoverthe 2y ago
  edge is really bad. well named though. laws? they only respect one thing.
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > they only respect one thing Violence? Do you mean violence? You're implicitly complaining about creeping oligarchism, and your solution is to introduce violence? Because that will magically manifest against the oligarchs? Versus the way it's gone every time in history, for the most obvious of obvious reasons, from the top down?
    - dbtc 2y ago
      Might be money, i.e. sales.
    - onetokeoverthe 2y ago
      vietnam won. not because of violence but because of unity. that's what totally broken...the lack of cohesion. divided and conquered. your confrontational approach being another microscopic essentially invisible example. as for apple. jobs died and apple died then too.
      - walterbell 2y ago
        > divided and conquered Humans are slowly learning how to respond to manufactured dissent and contagious division.
        onetokeoverthe 2y ago
teruakohatu 2y ago
Has anyone found a good use for Apple Intelligence? I am knee-deep in LLMs all day, but I have disabled it on my devices. It just didn't seem useful. I tried the image generator once and the output was borderline offensive (I won't derail this thread by going into why).
- smcleod 2y ago
  IMO the only good feature in it is the notification summaries, they're pretty accurate and useful. Siri on the other hand is embarrassingly bad.
  - Tagbert 2y ago
    Siri doesn’t use Apple Intelligence. It is 10+ year-old technology that does not do learning. We won’t seen a truly smarter Siri until June when Apple previews the LLM Siri.
    - Reason077 2y ago
      > "We won’t seen a truly smarter Siri until June when Apple previews the LLM Siri." Really, they should have started with Siri, the moment LLMs became a thing. Not try to graft battery-draining AI assistants into existing apps in often-not-very-useful ways!
      - Tagbert 2y ago
        Perhaps replacing Siri with an LLM within the resources of a phone is complicated and takes time to get right. I’m willing to wait to see where they go with this a while longer.
  - xyst 2y ago
    > Siri on the other hand is embarrassingly bad Always has been (c.2012)
    - hedora 2y ago
RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u 2y ago
Just like the blog author, I updated two Macs, and one got the setup wizard and thus AI got re-enabled, while the other did not. Maybe it's a bug, or maybe it's A/B testing... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
simondotau 2y ago
Fifteen years ago, Apple launched Mac OS X Snow Leopard, proudly proclaiming "zero new features", because refining existing features was sufficient. Ten years ago, Apple was proud about the caution with which they loaded up on features. Apple needs to remind itself why it said this. https://vimeo.com/241783590 https://vimeo.com/241783590
- ProllyInfamous 2y ago
  >Apple launched Mac OS X Snow Leopard I worked in an institutional IT Dept during this initial roll-out, and it bricked entire labs (wifi & printing, primarily). Silver lining: greater opportunities after this "last job in tech."
xyst 2y ago
This has been an issue for users since the debut of “apple intelligence”. Every single stupid minor or patch version re-enables it after updating. Can’t wait for the next Apple lawsuit where I get $5 in compensation after 2-3 years of stalling it in courts.
tap-snap-or-nap 2y ago
Another of Stallman was right situation.
daft_pink 2y ago
I think for most people this is a snoozer as we literally purchase Apple products to use their software and update to get new features.
crossroadsguy 2y ago
Now I laugh in frustration whenever I see an “Apple bug” mentioned in of their products. Apple’s entire ecosystem is riddled with visible and invisible bugs which they leave around sometimes behind their completely opaque processes (assuming there are processes) or sometimes just out in front of the open. As a user you’d never know what is the status of a certain bug — whether someone even started working on that and whether someone even looked at it exactly once! You would know nothing! And this is about a bug report! A problem you are facing? You will be made to backup your entire data and then wipe your devices (yes, I was made to do it for a Safari issue on Mac; they made me wipe out the iPhone as well - why? Of course same iCloud) and then it was not fixed and you got a “we will look into it”! In this entire period — you’d have received EXACTLY ZERO emails with updates! They would never reply to you on email ever!! Never!! And would not provide or entertain an email ever!! Never! You wanna record an Apple custom care call? Tough luck. You do that without informing them otherwise they’d refuse to even speak to you. Well, Apple records it and they will provide you a copy so yeah trust them! The user hostility is so extreme that sometimes I end up pulling up my hair “how the fuck can anyone become FAN of such a company??? How? I mean you can be a user of such a company, but fan? Ffs! Then I look at the OS and device market and see Android and Windows (no, I am not counting Linux!) and I realise where we have arrived.
- Reason077 2y ago
  It used to be the case that if you reported a bug though Apple's bug reporting system and it got accepted/acknowledged, you did actually get updates via email about the state of the bug. I'm not sure if it still works like that but it certainly did a few years ago. Also speaking about developer issues here, not sure if the "consumer" bug reporting system works the same way.
  - crossroadsguy 2y ago
    No, I was writing as a consumer. I don't know how the dev side of things work (I am not one). For consumers it is completely closed off and evidently hostile.
wobfan 2y ago
Pro tip: set your display language to English (US) and Siri to English (UK), while leaving it obviously disabled (unless you want to use Siri, wtf?) This way, Apple Intelligence can not run, because the display and Siri language need to be the same.
- thisislife2 2y ago
  Huh? can anybody else confirm this?
nedt 2y ago
Here in Europe we aren't even allowed to enable it. Not even as a beta tester.
soupfordummies 2y ago
Why are they pushing it so much?
- hosteur 2y ago
  Number of users AI users is someone's bonus target.
EfficientDude 2y ago
MS also uses this trick all the time. Very dishonest practice, I don't think anybody can call it a bug in good faith.
anna41517 2y ago
[flagged]

124 points by walterbell 2y ago

greyface- 2y ago

I associate this sort of disrespectful crapware auto-opt-in behavior with Windows, not macOS. Times are changing.

JKCalhoun 2y ago
Full disclosure: I retired from Apple several years ago — but I'm going to call it a bug. But I don't say that with any joy. I find the OS(es) to be getting buggier and buggier and I am saddened by that.
userbinator 2y ago
Apple was never shy about telling users what they can and cannot do. The only difference is perception.
GeekyBear 2y ago
Office 365 just opted users into AI features without prompting, and started charging an additional monthly premium for the "privilege". That certainly raises the bar.
- saratogacx 2y ago
  It gets better. Once you opt-out and get the "classic" plan, you are stuck with the AI features until the next billing cycle. They pulled this stunt at month 2 of my sub so I've got these AI "credits" I don't want and can't get rid of until November.
WhyNotHugo 2y ago
iOS also has ads now, thought they're called "Siri suggestions". The most notable one I saw was a recommendation to download the KFC widget on my iOS home screen. As someone who's never been to KFC, and never used either their website or app, this "suggestion" is indistinguishable from an ad. Apparently this is triggered due to being "in close proximity" of a KFC (e.g.: due to walking through a mall). You can disable these ads, but they're enabled by default.

pier25 2y ago

These PMs of AI features are going to ridiculous lengths to improve their KPIs /s

zombiwoof 2y ago

Does it come with a forced installed U2 album?

adolph 2y ago
in skeuomophic brushed metal held the wrong way
simondotau 2y ago
But think of the thousands of U2 fans who were delighted

mulletbum 2y ago

Apple has had a Bluetooth software issues in ios 17 and 18 that makes both 15 Pro Max and 16 Pro Max randomly disconnect Bluetooth and all sorts of weird issues. They waited over a year to finally address it in 18.3, then proceeded to break Bluetooth now where it just all together disconnects over and over. Apple has gone WAY down hill.

SoftTalker 2y ago
Bluetooth has sucked since it was introduced. I've never had a Bluetooth anything that worked well and reliably. We need a total rethink on close-range wireless communication for accessory devices. Preferably something patented with an expensive license so fly-by-night chinese hardware shops can't dump their garbage on the market using that protocol.
- 6SixTy 2y ago
  There is an alternative protocol for wireless communications, only problem is that it's Chinese. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42443750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42443750
  - lesuorac 2y ago
    Aren't like all of the Bluetooths alternative wireless protocols to themselves? It's not like you can use a Bluetooth classic device to connect to Bluetooth low energy. Then there's also like Zigbee and etc; I don't think the world is hurting for wireless protocols. Everybody has their own new standard that'll be able to replace the rest lol.
    - 6SixTy 2y ago
      Difference is that Zigbee etc aren't vying for the same place that StarFlash/Nearlink,etc is for Bluetooth
- jwr 2y ago
  That kind of generalizing isn't helpful and isn't true, either. I am sorry you didn't have a "Bluetooth anything" that worked reliably. I did. In fact, everything that I own that uses Bluetooth works very well. There are two important things about Bluetooth. 1. There are actually two kinds of Bluetooth. The "traditional" mostly connection-oriented Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). They share very little with each other, except for the marketing name. BLE works way better in practice. Many people still remember their old headsets that used Bluetooth and that took ages to connect to their phones and associate those with the "Bluetooth experience". 2. Bluetooth is complex. Many manufacturers get it wrong. But the problem is not with Bluetooth. You could invent a different set of protocols, and if they were to do everything that Bluetooth does, they would get very complex as well, and we would have the same problem, except in a less popular and less broadly adopted protocol.

AnonC 2y ago

It seems like Apple wants to push Apple Intelligence (with all its flaws) to all the devices it has deemed worthy of using it. The increase in this kind of user hostile behavior and dark patterns aren’t going to help the company. Tangentially, I think Apple could gain a lot by employing Jeff Johnson (the author of this and other posts) for improving the user experience of its products and services. I’m not sure if Jeff would find it fulfilling though.

khana 2y ago
[dead]
walterbell 2y ago
improving the user experience of its products and services Bounty program for inspecfluencers whose independent publications lead to product improvements? In theory, employee QA and customer bugs/radars serve the same function, minus transparency on the reasons for action or inaction. If each annoying bug was a tradeable financial instrument, then annoyance could be quantified and fixes incentivized.
lapcat 2y ago
> Tangentially, I think Apple could gain a lot by employing Jeff Johnson (the author of this and other posts) for improving the user experience of its products and services. I’m not sure if Jeff would find it fulfilling though. I'm not special, just loud. If Apple cared enough to hire me, they wouldn't need to hire me.
- dstroot 2y ago
  >”If Apple cared enough to hire me, they wouldn't need to hire me.“ Take my upvote. Love it.

fmajid 2y ago

That, and the constant shilling for their useless services like Apple News or Apple Fitness

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

I am very tired of the dark patterns used by all these monopolies. Windows pushing Edge. Apple trying to make me use Siri or subscribe to their game service. Google pushing Gemini. Enough is enough. We need new antitrust laws.

onetokeoverthe 2y ago
edge is really bad. well named though. laws? they only respect one thing.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > they only respect one thing Violence? Do you mean violence? You're implicitly complaining about creeping oligarchism, and your solution is to introduce violence? Because that will magically manifest against the oligarchs? Versus the way it's gone every time in history, for the most obvious of obvious reasons, from the top down?
  - dbtc 2y ago
    Might be money, i.e. sales.
  - onetokeoverthe 2y ago
    vietnam won. not because of violence but because of unity. that's what totally broken...the lack of cohesion. divided and conquered. your confrontational approach being another microscopic essentially invisible example. as for apple. jobs died and apple died then too.
    - walterbell 2y ago
      > divided and conquered Humans are slowly learning how to respond to manufactured dissent and contagious division.
      - onetokeoverthe 2y ago

teruakohatu 2y ago

Has anyone found a good use for Apple Intelligence? I am knee-deep in LLMs all day, but I have disabled it on my devices. It just didn't seem useful. I tried the image generator once and the output was borderline offensive (I won't derail this thread by going into why).

smcleod 2y ago
IMO the only good feature in it is the notification summaries, they're pretty accurate and useful. Siri on the other hand is embarrassingly bad.
- Tagbert 2y ago
  Siri doesn’t use Apple Intelligence. It is 10+ year-old technology that does not do learning. We won’t seen a truly smarter Siri until June when Apple previews the LLM Siri.
  - Reason077 2y ago
    > "We won’t seen a truly smarter Siri until June when Apple previews the LLM Siri." Really, they should have started with Siri, the moment LLMs became a thing. Not try to graft battery-draining AI assistants into existing apps in often-not-very-useful ways!
    - Tagbert 2y ago
      Perhaps replacing Siri with an LLM within the resources of a phone is complicated and takes time to get right. I’m willing to wait to see where they go with this a while longer.
- xyst 2y ago
  > Siri on the other hand is embarrassingly bad Always has been (c.2012)
  - hedora 2y ago

RJIb8RBYxzAMX9u 2y ago

Just like the blog author, I updated two Macs, and one got the setup wizard and thus AI got re-enabled, while the other did not. Maybe it's a bug, or maybe it's A/B testing... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

simondotau 2y ago

Fifteen years ago, Apple launched Mac OS X Snow Leopard, proudly proclaiming "zero new features", because refining existing features was sufficient. Ten years ago, Apple was proud about the caution with which they loaded up on features. Apple needs to remind itself why it said this. https://vimeo.com/241783590 https://vimeo.com/241783590

ProllyInfamous 2y ago
>Apple launched Mac OS X Snow Leopard I worked in an institutional IT Dept during this initial roll-out, and it bricked entire labs (wifi & printing, primarily). Silver lining: greater opportunities after this "last job in tech."

xyst 2y ago

This has been an issue for users since the debut of “apple intelligence”. Every single stupid minor or patch version re-enables it after updating. Can’t wait for the next Apple lawsuit where I get $5 in compensation after 2-3 years of stalling it in courts.

tap-snap-or-nap 2y ago

Another of Stallman was right situation.

daft_pink 2y ago

I think for most people this is a snoozer as we literally purchase Apple products to use their software and update to get new features.

crossroadsguy 2y ago

Now I laugh in frustration whenever I see an “Apple bug” mentioned in of their products. Apple’s entire ecosystem is riddled with visible and invisible bugs which they leave around sometimes behind their completely opaque processes (assuming there are processes) or sometimes just out in front of the open. As a user you’d never know what is the status of a certain bug — whether someone even started working on that and whether someone even looked at it exactly once! You would know nothing! And this is about a bug report! A problem you are facing? You will be made to backup your entire data and then wipe your devices (yes, I was made to do it for a Safari issue on Mac; they made me wipe out the iPhone as well - why? Of course same iCloud) and then it was not fixed and you got a “we will look into it”! In this entire period — you’d have received EXACTLY ZERO emails with updates! They would never reply to you on email ever!! Never!! And would not provide or entertain an email ever!! Never! You wanna record an Apple custom care call? Tough luck. You do that without informing them otherwise they’d refuse to even speak to you. Well, Apple records it and they will provide you a copy so yeah trust them! The user hostility is so extreme that sometimes I end up pulling up my hair “how the fuck can anyone become FAN of such a company??? How? I mean you can be a user of such a company, but fan? Ffs! Then I look at the OS and device market and see Android and Windows (no, I am not counting Linux!) and I realise where we have arrived.

Reason077 2y ago
It used to be the case that if you reported a bug though Apple's bug reporting system and it got accepted/acknowledged, you did actually get updates via email about the state of the bug. I'm not sure if it still works like that but it certainly did a few years ago. Also speaking about developer issues here, not sure if the "consumer" bug reporting system works the same way.
- crossroadsguy 2y ago
  No, I was writing as a consumer. I don't know how the dev side of things work (I am not one). For consumers it is completely closed off and evidently hostile.

wobfan 2y ago

Pro tip: set your display language to English (US) and Siri to English (UK), while leaving it obviously disabled (unless you want to use Siri, wtf?) This way, Apple Intelligence can not run, because the display and Siri language need to be the same.

thisislife2 2y ago
Huh? can anybody else confirm this?

nedt 2y ago

Here in Europe we aren't even allowed to enable it. Not even as a beta tester.

soupfordummies 2y ago

Why are they pushing it so much?

hosteur 2y ago
Number of users AI users is someone's bonus target.

EfficientDude 2y ago

MS also uses this trick all the time. Very dishonest practice, I don't think anybody can call it a bug in good faith.

anna41517 2y ago

[flagged]