source: techcrunch ai: apple plays catch-up at wwdc
level: business
apple's wwdc keynote began with a series of fixes rather than new features. craig federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, spent the opening stretch detailing repairs to core software that had frustrated users. the company addressed the controversial liquid glass design from ios 26, which had drawn complaints about readability. a new slider now lets users dial back the transparency to a fully tinted look. other tweaks included a more uniform macos toolbar and sharper app icons.
performance improvements followed, with iphone and ipad apps launching 30% faster, new photos appearing up to 70% faster, and airdrop transfers speeding up by 80%. these gains extend back to the iphone 11. apple also smoothed wi-fi to cellular transitions, added a message delay indicator, and rebuilt search to be more stable and comprehensive. the health app finally added perimenopause and menopause tracking, and icloud shared albums now accept contributions from android and windows users.
only after these updates did apple introduce the ai-enhanced siri, framing it as one piece of a broader effort. siri will launch in beta later this year, but not in the eu or china due to regulatory hurdles. other ai features include safari tab organization, on-the-fly custom extension generation, and stronger password suggestions. messages gains context-based reply suggestions, calendar can create events from natural language, and the home app summarizes events. image playground now generates functional images like flyers, and an api opens it to developers. photo editing adds object removal and spatial reframing, which works retroactively on existing images.
why it matters: apple's focus on fixing core software before rolling out ai shows that reliable foundations are critical for user trust in ai features, a lesson for any data-driven product.