Apple plays catch-up at WWDC

苹果在 WWDC 上奋起直追

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday started off with an apology of sorts. Instead of jumping right into the headline news about a revamped AI-powered Siri, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi spent the first stretch of the keynote on a list of repairs. 周一举行的苹果全球开发者大会（WWDC）以一种近乎道歉的方式开场。苹果软件工程高级副总裁克雷格·费德里吉（Craig Federighi）并没有直接切入关于人工智能驱动的 Siri 改版的重磅新闻，而是将主题演讲的第一部分花在了列举一系列修复工作上。

For the past two years, Apple has been racing to catch up in AI while frustrations with its core software quietly added up: a design overhaul users hated, a search function that barely worked, a file-sharing feature that routinely failed, and a Health app that didn’t focus enough on half its user base. Apple didn’t say any of that on Monday. But the structure of its WWDC keynote said it for them, leading with fixes before features, and framing a better Siri as one item on a long list of improvements rather than the main event. 过去两年里，苹果一直在人工智能领域奋起直追，与此同时，用户对其核心软件的挫败感也在悄然累积：用户厌恶的设计大改版、几乎无法使用的搜索功能、经常出错的文件共享功能，以及对半数用户群体关注不足的健康应用。苹果在周一并没有明说这些，但 WWDC 主题演讲的结构替他们表达了这一点——先讲修复，再讲功能，并将改进后的 Siri 视为长长改进清单中的一项，而非重头戏。

At minimum, the sequencing suggests Apple believes the foundation needs shoring up before it can credibly ask users to trust it with something as consequential as AI. “Instead of just introducing a host of new features, we’re also taking the features you already rely on and making them even better, because we believe the best operating systems aren’t just built on big breakthroughs, they’re built on sweating the details,” Federighi said. 至少，这种顺序安排表明苹果认为，在要求用户信任其人工智能这样重大的技术之前，必须先夯实基础。费德里吉表示：“我们不仅仅是引入一系列新功能，还在不断优化你已经依赖的功能，因为我们相信，最好的操作系统不仅建立在重大突破之上，更建立在对细节的精雕细琢之上。”

It’s the kind of statement that would be unremarkable from most companies, but from Apple, it was as close to an admission of fault as you’ll get. (Sweating the details is exactly what critics said the company had stopped doing.) Federighi didn’t have to wait long to prove the point. The first item on the list was the company’s controversial Liquid Glass design language that first arrived in iOS 26 and promptly triggered consumer backlash over readability and usability concerns. 这种声明对于大多数公司来说可能平淡无奇，但出自苹果之口，这已是极其接近承认错误的态度了。（评论家们曾指出，苹果恰恰停止了对细节的关注。）费德里吉很快就证明了这一点。清单上的第一项就是苹果备受争议的“液态玻璃”（Liquid Glass）设计语言，该设计首次出现在 iOS 26 中，并因可读性和易用性问题迅速引发了消费者的强烈抵制。

While visually impressive, Liquid Glass’s glass-like aesthetic made certain on-screen elements harder to see. Users pointed out numerous ways the update was undercooked, particularly on the Mac, and begged Apple for tools to restore the more frosted look. The company approached the moment carefully, saying “really appreciates” the user feedback it received over Liquid Glass over the past year. 虽然视觉效果令人印象深刻，但“液态玻璃”的类玻璃美学使得屏幕上的某些元素变得难以辨认。用户指出了此次更新在许多方面显得不够成熟，特别是在 Mac 上，并恳求苹果提供工具来恢复之前的磨砂外观。苹果对此处理得非常谨慎，表示“非常感谢”过去一年中用户对“液态玻璃”提出的反馈。

“While we think this is a great new default look, we also know that some users would like Liquid Glass to be even more clear, and others prefer a more tinted appearance,” said Apple’s director of human interface design, Shubham Kedia, during the keynote address. (Nobody, for the record, is asking for it to be even clearer.) Apple, which had already tweaked the design before today, is now allowing users to dial it back entirely with a new slider that goes all the way to “fully tinted.” 苹果人机界面设计总监舒巴姆·凯迪亚（Shubham Kedia）在主题演讲中说：“虽然我们认为这是一个很棒的新默认外观，但我们也知道一些用户希望‘液态玻璃’更清晰，而另一些用户则更喜欢带有色调的外观。”（顺便提一下，并没有人要求它变得更清晰。）苹果在今天之前已经对设计进行了微调，现在又通过一个新的滑块允许用户将其完全调回，最高可调至“完全着色”。

A few other small but telling updates followed. Apple showed a “more uniform” toolbar in macOS designed to better distinguish controls and text from the content beneath them, in another usability improvement. App icons received additional Liquid Glass refinements to make them “sharper and more defined,” even when set to clear mode. 随后还发布了一些虽小但意义重大的更新。苹果展示了 macOS 中一个“更统一”的工具栏，旨在更好地将控件和文本与下方的背景内容区分开来，这是又一项易用性改进。应用图标也得到了额外的“液态玻璃”优化，使其即使在清晰模式下也显得“更锐利、更清晰”。

Then came performance improvements. iPhone and iPad apps now launch 30% faster, new photos appear up to 70% faster in your library, and files are transferred up to 80% faster when using AirDrop, a notoriously flaky file-sharing system. 接下来是性能提升。iPhone 和 iPad 应用的启动速度提升了 30%，照片库中新照片的显示速度提升了 70%，而在使用以“不稳定”著称的文件共享系统 AirDrop 时，文件传输速度提升了高达 80%。

In a subtle acknowledgment that people are holding onto their phones longer these days, Apple said it extended performance improvements to all models back to iPhone 11, a phone released in 2019. Apple also addressed several long-standing friction points: smoother transitions between Wi-Fi and cellular, a new indicator that lets you know when your messages are taking longer to go through (useful when you’re on low bandwidth or sending a large file), and a rebuilt search experience that the company describes as “more stable, more efficient, and more comprehensive of content.” 苹果含蓄地承认了人们现在更换手机的周期变长了，并表示将性能改进扩展到了包括 2019 年发布的 iPhone 11 在内的所有旧机型。苹果还解决了几个长期存在的痛点：Wi-Fi 和蜂窝网络之间的切换更加平滑；新增了一个指示器，让你知道消息发送延迟的情况（在带宽较低或发送大文件时非常有用）；并重建了搜索体验，公司称其“更稳定、更高效，且内容覆盖更全面”。

New content will be indexed almost immediately, and a new ranking system in Mail will surface the most relevant results appear first. (The fact that this needed fixing at all says something about how far Apple’s search had fallen behind.) Apple’s Health app — which had gone years without meaningfully supporting half its user base — added support for perimenopause and menopause tracking. It’s a long-overdue move that arrives as the menopause care market hits its stride: earlier this year, menopause telehealth startup Midi Health crossed a $1 billion valuation, and dedicated investment in the category topped $294 million between 2022 and last year. 新内容几乎可以立即被索引，邮件应用中的新排名系统将优先显示最相关的结果。（事实上，这一点需要修复，恰恰说明了苹果的搜索功能已经落后了多少。）苹果的健康应用——多年来一直未能为半数用户群体提供实质性支持——增加了对围绝经期和绝经期追踪的支持。这是一个姗姗来迟的举措，正值绝经期护理市场步入正轨之际：今年早些时候，绝经期远程医疗初创公司 Midi Health 的估值超过了 10 亿美元，而 2022 年至去年期间，该领域的专项投资超过了 2.94 亿美元。

iCloud shared photo albums can now accept contributions from Android and Windows users, making the feature far more useful for shared trips and group events. Apple also rolled out improved screen time controls for parents before turning to the main event: the announcement of the AI-enhanced Siri. The sequencing was intentional. By stacking a long list of smaller improvements up front, Apple reframed its Siri update as one piece of a broader effort, rather than the make-or-break AI moment the industry has been watching for. iCloud 共享相册现在可以接受来自 Android 和 Windows 用户的贡献，这使得该功能在共享旅行和集体活动中变得更加实用。苹果还为家长推出了改进的屏幕时间控制功能，随后才转向重头戏：宣布人工智能增强版的 Siri。这种顺序安排是有意为之的。通过在前面堆叠一长串较小的改进，苹果将 Siri 的更新重新定位为更广泛努力的一部分，而不是行业所期待的那个决定成败的人工智能时刻。

That framing is probably smart. Siri is launching into “beta” for consumers later this year, but not in the EU or China, where Apple still has regulatory hurdles to clear. For a feature that was supposed to define Apple’s AI strategy, “beta, coming later, not everywhere” is a pretty noteworthy hedge. 这种定位或许是明智的。Siri 将于今年晚些时候以“测试版”形式向消费者推出，但欧盟和中国除外，因为苹果在这些地区仍面临监管障碍。对于一个本应定义苹果人工智能战略的功能来说，“测试版、稍后推出、并非全球可用”是一个相当值得注意的避险策略。

Apple outlined other smaller AI advances, like how Apple Intelligence will be able to organize your webpages’ tabs, analyze webpages for information, check pages for updates, and more. You can even generate a custom Safari extension on the fly using AI, which sounds interesting. Passwords and Safari can now work together to suggest and apply stronger passwords automatically. Apple Intelligence is also adding helpful reply suggestions in Messages based on conversation context. For instance, if someone asks you for photos, Apple’s AI can point you to the right ones. 苹果还概述了其他较小的人工智能进展，例如“苹果智能”（Apple Intelligence）将如何能够整理网页标签页、分析网页信息、检查页面更新等。你甚至可以使用人工智能即时生成自定义的 Safari 扩展程序，这听起来很有趣。密码功能和 Safari 现在可以协同工作，自动建议并应用更强的密码。苹果智能还在信息应用中增加了基于对话上下文的实用回复建议。例如，如果有人向你要照片，苹果的人工智能可以为你指出正确的照片。