Major phone call recording and Apple Intelligence AI.
Just as I was about to upgrade, I found a string of text:
Apple Intelligence is available on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple Intelligence is not currently available in the EU or China.
This means Apple AI requires 15 Pro/Pro Max, and currently doesn't support EU and China regions.
Although I have a 15 Pro, it's a Chinese version. This means even if I update to iOS 18.1 beta, I won't be able to experience Apple AI.
According to users who have already updated, Apple AI is hardware-locked.
This means even if you're at Apple's US headquarters, connected to a hotspot personally set up by Tim Cook, you still can't use it if your iPhone is from China or the EU region.
But to satisfy the curiosity of our readers, I made a costly decision—
I borrowed some money from the boss, got a US version iPhone from a phone store, and had a delivery guy bring it across half of Hangzhou.
As soon as I got it, I logged into a US developer account, upgraded to iOS 18.1 beta, set the system and Siri language to English, chose the US as the region, and finally joined the AI waitlist...
After an anxious wait, I received a notification that Apple's AI had finally arrived...
As for the experience, don't rush, let's go in order and first talk about ### Apple's call recording, which people have been anticipating for longer.
After upgrading to iOS 18.1, there's a recording button in the top left corner during calls. You can start recording by tapping it.
However, you may have heard that when recording starts, the other party will hear a very clear prompt: ### This call will be recorded...
After recording, we can find an audio file named "Call with xxx" in the Notes app.
To be honest, ### the audio quality is very clear. The hardware guy even said it's good enough to make a podcast.
The recording can also be transcribed, with Chinese support, but the accuracy is average. There are typos and missing words, and when two people speak simultaneously, that part isn't transcribed at all.
Although Apple has finally released call recording, most users don't seem to like the "notify the other party of recording" setting...
This is why Lei Jun has a good business sense.
The newly launched earphones can not only record independently but also convert speech to text, without being limited to specific phone models, which is indeed designed for iPhone users...
OK, now let's talk about Apple AI.
Unfortunately, there aren't many AI features this time.
According to 9TO5MAC, the main new features are ### new version of Siri, AI writing tools, and email summary support. The screen awareness feature and text-to-image generation announced at WWDC haven't been released.
Let's go through them one by one.
First, the upgraded Siri finally has a marquee effect, with a colorful halo appearing around the screen during conversations.
As a detail-obsessed company, Apple has designed different Siri entrance animations for different wake-up methods.
When you wake up Siri with voice, the animation pops out from the microphone; when you call Siri by long-pressing the power button, the animation pops out from the power button.
Of course, if you're like me, handsome but socially anxious, and shy about talking to Siri in public, you can double-tap the bar at the bottom of the screen to type and chat with Siri.
I must say, Siri's new set of animations is really cool. But after testing, I found that Siri seems to have only become cooler, not smarter.
For example, it's rumored that Siri has gained contextual understanding ability, but I couldn't successfully test this.
I asked Siri to find a photo of headphones in the Photos app, but it didn't understand me and instead found a photo of headphones from the internet.
I asked Siri about the weather in Shanghai for tomorrow as I'm going there, and it answered with Shanghai's weather conditions.
I then asked: "So do I need to bring sunscreen?"
It gave me advice based on Hangzhou's weather (my current location).
Clearly, Siri's second answer didn't consider the context.
Then I asked Siri to check nearby restaurants, and after it showed some, I asked if it had any recommendations, but it switched to recommending movies instead.
Oh Siri, you're still the same old you, not a bit changed~
Besides Siri just becoming cooler, the new features in the Photos app are also a bit cool.
You can input a description in Photos and let Apple AI create a memory video.
For example, if you write "cat over the years", it will use a very cool animation (a bit reminiscent of Rockstar Games) to compile a memory video of cat photos over the years.
However, the video above is what I saw on foreign websites.
I couldn't test it myself, as the system reminded me it was still processing photos. I guess it's because the phone is new and the recently transferred photos haven't been fully learned yet, so I can only demonstrate it next time.
This update also added an AI writing tool called Writing Tools, which you can use in typing and reading scenarios.
Currently, it has ### three main functions: proofreading, rewriting, and summarizing.
For example, the sentence "my name are Michael, whta is your nome!" has word, grammar, and punctuation errors.
If we click Proofread, it will correct it and understand the tone, changing the exclamation mark to a question mark.
Clicking rewrite will rephrase the sentence in a different way.
Of course, in dealing with people, one should be flexible - humble before the strong, proud before the weak