Creating summaries seems like something everyone wants to do with AI, and Apple Intelligence is ready to do the same. You can summarize emails, messages, and even notifications from third-party apps. Some of this can be useful, like when the Mail app calls out an urgent-looking email in its summary that I would miss if I were just scrolling through my massive email collection. But most of the time, I just swipe the summary aside and scroll through all the notifications.
Speaking of which, there is a summary feature built into Safari, but you have to put the website into Reader mode. These things make it difficult to find these smart features and remember that they exist. At least, I was able to summarize an 11,000 word story and understand the plot when I don’t have time to sit down and read it. (Sorry.) I’ll forgive you if you summarize this review.
Arguably the most useful feature of Apple Intelligence for me as a journalist who attends multiple briefings each month is the new transcription tools in the Notes app, Voice Memos, and even the Phone app. Tap the record button in Voice Memos and Notes and the apps will transcribe conversations in real time! If you’re on a phone call, tap the record button and once both parties are notified, the app will start recording the call and you’ll get a transcript saved to your Notes app.
For all of this, much depends on the quality of the microphone of the person on the other end of the line. Either way, it’s certainly better than no recording at all. It’s a shame there’s no speaker label, as above. Google Voice Recorder App. You also can’t search these recordings for a specific quote. (Technically, you can do that if you add the recording to a note in the Notes app, but you can’t jump to that part of the recording once you find it.)
The Photos app is also getting Apple Intelligence infused into it, and the highlight here is the Cleanup feature. Just like Google’s Pixel phones introduced Magic Eraser more than three years agoYou can now remove unwanted objects in the background of your iPhone photos. In my experience, this works pretty well, although I’m a little surprised that Apple gives you so much freedom to remove whatever. I completely removed my eyes from the selfie. I removed all the fingers on my hand. (Google’s feature doesn’t let you remove part of a person’s face.)
Next, I cleared my cup, which was sitting in front of me as I took a sip, and Clean Up tried to make out the rest of my face that had previously been hidden, producing some horrifying results. (For your information, I tried this on the Pixel 9 and the results were just as bad, though Google do (gives me more options.) As my colleague said on Slack, “They both seem trained on Bugs Bunny imagery.”
