Voice assistants have a reputation for finicky activation, such as responding to their prompts that are spoken in an ad. Apple may have a fix for that in the works. A part of code called AdBlocker appears to use the Shazam API to match audio captured by a device's microphones against audio fingerprints downloaded from Apple. When there's a match, the usual Siri trigger command is disabled. In theory, this means Apple could have devices not react to the "Hey Siri" prompt when it's spoken as part of the company's keynote presentations or TV advertisements.

MacRumors noticed an unusual feature in the second iOS 18.2 developer beta, showing that Apple may let users upgrade to a paid ChatGPT plan as part of Apple Intelligence. While Siri doesn't need to use ChatGPT for all its tasks, some users enjoy using the integration for power tasks and more. In the image above, you can see that under "advanced capabilities," there's a "daily limit" section that shows "under limit." This means users can only use the latest advanced ChatGPT functions several times a day. This checks out because ChatGPT-4o free access using any platform is limited and resets every 24 hours.

The Apple Intelligence rollout has been slow, staggered and steady since the company first unveiled its take on AI at WWDC this year. It continues today with the release of the latest developer betas for iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. The updates in iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia (15.2) bring long-awaited features like Genmoji, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence and ChatGPT integration for those running the preview software, as well as Image Wand for iPads and more writing tools. This follows the announcement that iOS 18.1 would be available as a stable release to the public next week, which would bring things like writing tools, notification summaries and Apple's hearing test to the masses. That represents the first time for people who haven't opted into beta software to check out Apple Intelligence, which the company has widely touted as the headline feature for the devices it launched this year. The iPhone 16 series, for example, were billed as phones designed for Apple Intelligence, though they launched without those features.

Don't call it AI, but Apple's long-awaited take on artificial intelligence is finally rolling out today. The developer betas for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1 just dropped, and they include some of the first Apple Intelligence features available to a broader, public group of testers. To be clear, this isn't the full release that was rumored to be delayed till October. These updates are part of an early preview for developers to test. Starting today, those with Apple developer accounts will be able to update their software and go into their settings to see a new option for Apple Intelligence.

All iPhone users have been warned not to download Apple's latest update - or risk crashing their smartphones or apps. Developers have been testing iOS 18 beta since Monday, uncovering bugs with text notifications, battery life, photos saving and the new'Lock and Hide an app' feature - among others. While the beta version is meant for such trials, average users are taking risks by downloading it as their main software. 'People wanting to download iOS 18 be warned - it will be buggy, it might brick your iPhone and certain apps may not work with it,' one developer shared on X. 'Be warned - it's a beta for a reason.' Early testers of Apple's new iOS 18 beta have found a trove of bugs in less than 24 hours after the tech giant unveiled the software Monday afternoon.

Apple launched the first developer beta for iOS 15.4, which provides an opportunity to test upcoming features planned for the iPhone. Among them is the ability to use Face ID while wearing a mask. Currently, the only way to unlock iPhones with Face ID and a mask on involves owning an Apple Watch. The iPhone has an option to unlock the phone with Apple Watch. Once enabled, users wake their iPhone then glance at the screen to unlock it.

You now have a chance to try Apple's machine learning-based Deep Fusion photography if you're willing to live on the bleeding edge. It's releasing an iOS 13.2 developer beta (public likely to follow soon) that makes Deep Fusion available to iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro owners. The technique uses machine learning to create highly detailed, sharper and more natural-looking photos on the primary and telephoto lenses by combining the results of multiple shots. Deep Fusion takes an underexposed photo for sharpness, and blends that with three neutral pictures and a long high-exposure image on a per-pixel level to achieve a highly customized result. The machine learning system examines the context of the picture to understand where a pixel sits on the frequency spectrum.