frustrations with Apple Intelligence only being available on newer hardware

Hello,
I fully agree with you. I have not had my Iphone 14 for not even two years yet, and once the new OS comes out that feature will not exist. Now, I do love that the accessibility features will be updated, but I also understand your frustration.

This behavior is nothing new. Siri was restricted to the iPhone 4s to boost sales. While I'm sure these features require more processing power and RAM, they could have compromised by allowing online access using their Apple Cloud or whatever they're calling it. Just because your phone won't get Apple Intelligence doesn't mean it's totally useless. It'll be supported for at least 3 or 4 more years, so I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you have your heart set on those features. If you do, time to upgrade.

Nothing wrong with it. Unfortunately it doesn't have the needed power or chip set. There is nothing apple could've done hear.

If there isn't enough engine under the hood of the iPhone, and the xchip set cannot do the work, you don't get the feature. I would like to see all of the 16's able to use the features. Think of it this way: Ford does not produce only 1 model. Different vehicles meet different needs. Why shouldn't Apple do the same?

The Apple Intellegence features don't really do much for me, but visual intelligence is a whole different ballgame. I told myself that I was going to keep my 13 pro for another year, and I still might, but between the new ultramarine color of the iPhone 16 and the visual intelligence features, my willpower is weakening. I will probably wait for some reviews and demos before I decide if I'm giong to upgrade or not. The fact that the 13 has been discontinued is another reason I'm slightly tempted to get a new phone this year. I know I'd lose out on the lidar senser that I currently have, but if I'm being honest, I have no clue if I've ever actually used it or not, and perhaps I'd benefit more from visual intelligence? Or maybe I'd get the same functionality from piccy bot or seeing AI. I just don't know. I've had my 13 pro since October of 2021, and for the most part, it still meets my needs perfectly. So, I'm feeling far more conflicted than I t hought I would. On the bright side, I have no interest in new watches or airpods, so temptation is relatively minimal, I suppose.

I get where you are coming from, but unfortunately these new features require a lot of power. They need more ram as well as the new chips for performance and privacy. You wouldn't want every request you made to go to the cloud. It would slow down your productivity. Upgrading isn't always easy. Especially if you are on a fixed income. just have to think about what your device currently does, and if that's enough for you. That's really something only you can decide. Your device will still receive updates and it should for a while to come. So if you can live without the intelligence features you will be fine. Keep in mind, there are other apps you can use for those features.

I dont like apple for this

Samsung has at least some AI stuff on all S searies phones that can run 1 UI 6.0

I have no idea how accessible they are cause i only have an S20 that cant go any higher then android 13

I am intrested to see how voiceover works with AI on these iphones though

Have a good rest of your day

I've got an IPhone 13 and will be sticking with it for a couple years, maybe longer.

This AI stuff they're putting on the phone just doesn't impress me enough to buy a new one.

If they improve voiceover with it and I can hear a podcast about that then I might consider it but for now, no, I don't care in the slightest about this stuff.

The Apple intelligence stuff is impressive. If you want a lower cost way into the Apple Intelligence stuff get an SE 4 when it comes out in march it will support Apple Intelligence.
link to the post discussing the SE 4.
https://applevis.com/forum/apple-hardware-compatible-accessories/when-expect-iphone-se-4-launch

I have a 15 pro max I find I don't use the Lidar features I've given thought to downgrading. The SE 4 will be an awesome phone and get updates for a while.

I'm still using my iPhone 12, and it's still going strong. No need to upgrade to the latest and greatest for me - a few extra features aren't worth it, especially when Apple's AI is still in its infancy. I'll wait until it matures a bit before jumping on the bandwagon.

As for that SE, I'd probably be upgrading if I switched to that model, but we'll see what happens.

i just got IPhone 13 a few months ago.
so won't change.
+ won't upgrade except if there is something huge worth upgrading because they're hella costly here and am one of the lucky ones to be able to use one IPhone because of how expensive they r

They are selling it as a game changer. I don't think it is or will be for the next few years. I think that, what they are really doing, is future proofing 15 pro onwards. There is nothing I've experienced on the beta worth noting. Maybe next year, when on screen awareness is working it will be useful, but even then, probably not.

AI/LLM is impressive but limited and not 100 % reliable. In time that probably won't change due to limitations of LLMs, and until we have logic based ones, IE, not language based, there will be a time whilst people are trying to work out the killer application.

It's all gone a bit quiet on the AI front. In short, I don't think you'll be missing much as it will take time for expectation to meet reality, by which point, you'll probably be looking at a phone which has been future proofed.

Saying that, if you want the latest and the greatest, you have to pay for it. That's fine too. It doesn't degrade the phone you have. You can do exactly what you could do with it before, it's not removing features.

No, this is not a tongue-in-cheek answer.
You rightly complain about the fact that the new Apple Intelligence features will only be available on the new hardware.
Just for 3 seconds, imagine if you lived in Italy, like me.
Well, at least we've put our hearts at rest here, because Apple Intelligence won't arrive before 2026.
And you know another wonderful thing?
Do you know those functions like Voice control, vocal commands, custom voice?
well, the Italian language is not present.
Think that the "voice commands" function which has been available for many years cannot be used by Italian speakers.
So, consider yourself lucky that yours is "only" a money problem, so to speak.

I sympathize with peoples frustrations. the older phones only have 6gb of ram which is just not enough. i wouldn't be at all surprised if Apple makes some of these features available on older phones in the future. What I wanted to suggest though is that if someones is interested in Apple intelligence, and can't afford a new phone that they look at purchasing a refurbished 15 pro directly from Apple. i have purchased these fromAmazon im the past and was not happy.

I, too, am rather disappointed that some or all of these new features will only work on the latest and greatest devices. I only got my iPhone 14 in February of this year, and would at least like to get another year or 2 out of it. I guess it's absolutely true what they say: technology is advancing at a rapid pace. Who knows though, perhaps Apple will someday be able to work their magic and make older devices last longer and work with these new features.

Right now, I don't really care about Apple intelligence even though I have a 15 Pro. But I don't buy all these conspiracy theories that come up every year that Apple is somehow making you upgrade. Your iPhone will work just as it always has.

I saw this interesting article this morning. It made me think, you could probably do most of the things Apple has been talking about, just with different third party apps and in the cloud and not with Apple's integration into iOS. That's also nothing new. Every year it seems like there's another app that potentially gets sherlocked because Apple makes their own.

Did not know Apple was able to control the mind of people.

Yes, Apple is controlling our minds by means of some sort of gobbledygook. I'm sure it's like that one movie.
Is the new Apple intelligence going to be able to describe things the camera sees in near-real-time, like with the video function?

There hasn't been any mention of live description.

It's all a bit pants really. The only part of apple AI I think might be useful are the writing tools for proofing. Siri, as it stands in beta 18.1 is just as dumb. Tying it into chat GPT might be good, but you can just use the chat gpt app.

It's not the game changer apple is marketting, it's an iterative progression. Your 14 will still be good for another four years. Apple just has to include AI because it can't not. They will be slow and careful with its roll out, and it's likely to be pretty boring. We are years off from a phone we can get to do everything for us, at least from apple. Privacy is apple's big sell, but I think it might also be its straight jacket.

I just got an iPhone 15 ProMax a few months ago, so obviously I'll be getting Apple Intelligence (assuming that it's not going to be region-restricted like Apple News). But honestly I don't really see much use for it since Microsoft's Copilot can do very identical stuff that Apple Intelligence can, just that Apple Intelligence will have deeper system intigration compared to Microsoft's Copilot.
Plus, I prefer the ability to just type my prompts into a chat-like interface, as opposed to checking around everywhere in the system for the AI feature I want to use.

There have always been such transition points where new hardware was needed to power new features. I don't have a ssense that Apple has introduced many utterly needless barriers. One thing to keep in mind is that Apple is really testing people's patience. They really should have taken a year's pause while more of these Apple Intelligence features were developed. Everyone will get these new iPhones an then wait months until things start appearing at last. Consider that when Apple Pay first came out, it essentially took a good year before I started using it in Canada and had any sense that I could do so widely. Perhaps, the speed of response from private cloud computing would be more noticeably slow than any of us realize. However, I hope that at least some capabilities will trickle back to older iPhones as the server side tech is perfected. Particularly, when it comes to Siri.
I'm writing this on an iPhone 15 which I've had for about a year. I'll still be paying for it until October of 2025. On a fixed income, I never would have contemplated upgrading in this situation. Also, I couldn't have justified getting a Pro iPhone given my unemployment and fixed income. I had a whole plan to draw on other people's experience of Apple Intelligence and other Pro features and writing parts of my book based on that work.
A couple of days ago, I learned that a group of people had done a fundraiser and I'll be getting an iPhone 16 Pro. This will let me write about all of these features from direct experience and give everyone my honest conclusions about how sensible it is for people on lower incomes to contemplate spending the extra money. I really didn't expect to be in this position. I've never asked for any money to keep writing my book. I just work with what I can reasonably afford or am given. This may be the only Pro iPhone I ever have and I plan to make the most of it.
As all of these features slowly emerge, I'll put them through their paces and describe them in the book. In fact, I hope to write two editions almost back to back as these new capabilities get going. If all goes well, I hope to publish the third edition of Personal Power at the end of April. Instead of the longer break I would have taken until I was financially able to upgrade in two or three years, I'll take a short break and then start working on an edition for iOS 20. Beyond that, I presume we'll start getting features that this Pro phon can't handle. I'll then have to start thinking about upgrading to a basic iPhone and be in the strange circumstance of having a Pro iPhone as my backup device.
My iPhone is my computer. I write the book from that perspective of using it to do nearly everything in life. I don't tend to travel alone much thanks to spatial difficulties and moderate hearing loss. There's a lot which I seriously wonder if I'll have much use for given that. The Apple Intelligence does excite me over the longer term. I'll be keen to see how this contextual awareness kicks in. Perhaps, my work will cause people in various agencies, governments and charities to consider subsidizing the price for newer iPhones for those with disabilities on a low income.

You say that Microsoft Copilot can do what the newer iPhones can do. Am I missing something, or can you use Microsoft Copilon on your iPhone? If you cannot do this, you haven't a leg to stand on. I mean, after all, eMail is more easily worked on my PC, so, should I slam Apple?

I understand the concept of needing more RAM and newer hardware to run newer features. I'm not insisting that Apple Inteligence come to my iPhone 14 Pro; I only ask that if they really need the new hardware, then at least let us integrate ChatGPT into the system rather than constantly having to open the app every time. It gets a bit redundant, in my opinion.

Replying to a response to my earlier comment, Microsoft Copilot can do things like create images (I've done it before and it's pretty cool). But comparing it to Apple Inteligence, that part I cannot say until I actually get it on my iPhone 15 ProMax. I hope Apple Inteligence won't be region-locked like Apple News.
But even for users on phones that won't be getting Apple Inteligence, Microsoft Copilot and Chat GPT are already good, considering that, from what I heard, Apple Inteligence is basically based on Chat GPT.

There is an optional Chat GPT intagration but a lot of what apple AI is doing is going to either be on device, hence the need for more ram, or in their own servers. I think chat gpt will be more of an extention to round out apple AI features than a basis for it. There will also be an option to add other AIs, much like we can choose the search engine we use in safari.

It's amazing how many forget that Gemini may be coming alongside GPT once Apple Intelligence arrives.
Here's a refresher:

https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/apple-intelligence-tipped-to-feature-google-gemini-integration-at-launch-as-well-as-chatgpt

For those who, like myself, do not have access to Apple's intelligence features, I highly recommend Perplexity as the best app for working with AI models. Although it requires a monthly subscription of $30 AUD, it offers the flexibility to switch between various AI models. Until a more superior alternative emerges, I intend to continue using Perplexity.

In an attempt not to stray too far off topic here, what about the Piccy Bot app? Does that not already have Chat GPT 4o and Gemini, as well as a few other AI LLMs?

When I heard that Apple Intelligence was going to be a thing, I thought it would be cool. I was pretty disappointed to find that it will only support the iPhone 15 Pro and stuff like that. My iPhone 13 is not much older, at least in my opinion. I guess Apple is trying to get more people to buy the newer iPhones.

Then I started wondering how many got Siri when it first came out. From what I've been able to ascertain, it wasn't everybody. Now everyone has Siri. So, I'm not too worried about Apple Intelligence, although I won't lie, I'm so tempted to get a new phone that will get it.

I’m going to adopt a wait and see attitude before deciding if upgrading from my iPhone 14 Pro Max is worth it. This depends on what the new hardware is able to do for me. I’m low vision and normally use the phone when away from home, hiking the mountains nearby within walking distance or going down into town. Around the hacienda I use the iPad Air which I intend to upgrade this autumn. I understand the need for more powerful processors for running the new, powerful apps and programs. Sounds like AI uses a lot of resources.

What I want most right now is more natural iOS voices to read my Kindle books. If ElevenLabs can sound so natural the Apple voices should be able to do that too. The female Alexa voice sounds very natural and is accessed via the Alexa app and will read most Kindle books but there is no option if a book needs a male narrator. The test to speech feature for Kindle reader right in the book while in the Kindle app will do this with Apple voices but they still sound too robotic. I am hoping IOS 18 will address this but have not heard any evidence of this yet.

I know it's frustrating, but this always happens with Apple, or Android, or whatever. Some new features are just not available on older devices. It's okay though. The first trail blazers will have to deal with bugs and hickups, so in a couple years when everyone else upgrades, the AI features should be a lot better, and should be a lot more capable.