2024

If you didn't guess from this article's very blatant title, this article reviews Apple's year in 2024, from Apple Intelligence to the M4 chips! This will be my last article of the year, given the holidays and my upcoming vacation through January 1st, so I hope you enjoy it!

iPhone

The iPhone 16 and 16 Pro were small upgrades, with Camera Control (to adjust camera settings with a swipe or press), a 48MP camera for the regular models, a 5x telephoto cam for the 16 Pro and Pro Max, 4K HDR 120fps video, Photographic Styles, better performance (snooze), Wi-Fi 7 (snooze), and a bigger size (0.2" bigger). The big standout was Apple Intelligence (to be mentioned later), but that wasn't even a new feature: the iPhone 15 Pro also had it. Oh, and I forgot: we said good-bye to the dirty devil of FineWoven this year!!!

iPad

The iPad was upgraded a lot this year, totally unlike 2023's blank year for iPads. The Apple event in May when the new M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air were announced was even correctly called the "biggest day for iPad since its introduction". Everyone was talking about a novel new design for the iPad Pro this year, and even though we didn't get that (only a thinner size), we still got OLED too, and (finally!) a landscape front camera (although on the camera note, we lost a camera on the rear). The iPad Air got a 13" size (the best upgrade in years), a landscape front camera, and a new chip (it didn't get the latest chip, however, on that note; the chip inside was down by two generations). The iPad mini got minor upgrades (other than Apple Intelligence), relegated to a fix to the jelly scrolling issue, a new A17 Pro chip (bringing Apple Intelligence), and new colors. Apple Intelligence will be a must-have in just a few months' time, so the upgrade was very welcome. Oh, and I forgot: there wasn't an 11th-generation regular iPad, even though the 10th-generation was released in fall 2022: just a lower price and the downfall of the last Lightning-supporting iPad (the 9th-generation).

AirPods

The AirPods were also upgraded this year, unlike last, with the new AirPods 4 (with an ANC model and a cheaper model to match the previous spot of the AirPods (2nd-generation)!) and hearing aid features for the AirPods Pro 2 (so you can check you hearing and use the AirPods Pro 2 as a hearing aid if your test comes out badly). Not insulting the other AirPods updates, however, I just realized that the AirPods Max even existed in the lineup (it only got new colors and USB-C, even though it debuted in 2020).

Mac

The Mac was sometimes upgraded in smal quantities (i.e. the M3 MacBook Air, M4 MacBook Pro, and after some experience with the device the M4 iMac) and sometimes given larger upgrades (i.e., the Mac mini, with the first design change since 2010). However, not including the Mac mini, the Mac had a small year of upgrades (if you're not counting one giant upgrade: with the debut of the M4 MacBook Pros, we finally got MacBook Airs without 8GB RAM options!). This is if you don't count the new chips, however; Apple managed to debut an M3 MacBook Air in the same year that they debuted the M4/M4 Pro/M4 Max MacBook Pros, something that in reality signified a problem with the M3 chips and their process (the first-generation 3nm chips, i.e. the M3 chips, had an inherent defect, so Apple had to quickly upgrade its devices to the second generation of the 3nm processes).

Apple Watch

Stop asking me; you know this one was upgraded mediocrely! And that is true (instead of a whole new design for the Series 10 and a Series X branding, just a thinner watch and bigger screen size), except for the sleep apnea detection feature, which is a very important feature for anyone. However, the watchOS improvements include Activity Ring pausing, a feature requested since the beginning of the Apple Watch, plus a smaller version of the Health app (the Vitals app, another long-awaited feature). The beginning of 2024 was packed with worrying about if the blood oxygen feature would ever come back to the Apple Watch (it didn't), all because of a patent dispute.

Vision Pro

The Vision Pro wasn't announced in 2024 (that was WWDC 2023), but it was finally released this year, in February. It was Apple's first foray into VR. However, the Vision Pro didn't get much attention among buyers, with many returning it (among the few who actually bought it, at its $3,500 price), and supply arriving way over demand. Also, rumors kept pushing back the date of the more affordable model, with some saying it would debut next year and some later saying it would debut in 2026 or even "beyond 2027".

Apple Intelligence

I give this feature a full section because it needs one. Apple finally started to play in AI after one and a half years at WWDC 2024, and looking at my Wednesday post, it's not big yet, even though it includes Genmoji (AI emojis, released in iOS 18.2 this month), writing tools, ChatGPT integrated into Siri plus multiple requests and a new design (although womp womp for anyone wishing for internal Siri improvements this year), categorization galore, Apple's Magic Eraser, Notification Summaries (read my previous article for more information on this feature), a Reduce Interruptions focus mode, transcription summaries, other summaries galore, Image Playground, natural language search and Visual Intelligence (a bit like Visual Look Up and Live Text rolled into one with AI sprinkled in). Some of the features weren't even released this year.

Overall

Overall, 2024 was an important year for Apple in many respects: Apple finally debuted its own AI, the Vision Pro (so far a dud) was finally released, the iPads were upgraded big-time, the Mac mini got a new design for the first time in 14 years, the MacBook Air's RAM finally got bumped up to a "palpable" 16GB of RAM standard, the AirPods Pro got hearing aid capabilities, and finally the AirPods 4 debuted with an ANC model. We even got FineWoven out of the picture! The year was only marred by boring iPhone and Apple Watch updates. Well, happy holidays, and see you in 2025!

By Leo