Apple's next-generation AI dictation feature for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air is not turned on by default in the first developer beta of iOS 27.


Apple says the new AI-powered dictation system delivers "a major boost in accuracy," with more reliable on-the-fly capitalization and punctuation than the existing dictation system. The feature runs on Apple's new AFM 3 Core Advanced model, which is a 20-billion-parameter, natively multimodal system that uses a sparse architecture, activating just one to four billion parameters at a time depending on the request.

To fit a model that large onto a smartphone, the full model is stored in flash memory rather than DRAM, with a lightweight routing block selecting a fixed set of "experts" during initial processing and periodically reselecting them during generation, a technique Apple calls Instruction-Following Pruning.

In side-by-side human evaluations against Apple's previous production dictation system across seven quality dimensions, AFM 3 Core Advanced was preferred on overall quality by a margin of 44.7% to 17.6%, with that preference holding consistently across the other six dimensions, which include punctuation, casing, layout, meaning capture, disfluency handling, and style.

Because of the model's size, the upgraded dictation is limited to a handful of newer devices: the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ Max, the ‌iPhone Air‌, the Vision Pro with M5 chip, iPads with an M4 chip or later with at least 12GB of RAM, and Macs with an M3 chip or later with at least 12GB of RAM. Notably, the standard iPhone 17 is excluded, as it ships with 8GB of RAM rather than the 12GB the larger model requires. The same AFM Core Advanced model also powers Apple's new customizable expressive Siri voices, another opt-in preview as of beta 1.

The new dictation model runs entirely on-device, so transcription quality stays the same whether or not the iPhone is connected to a network. It remains unclear whether the preview will stay off by default when ‌iOS 27‌ is released officially later this year, or whether Apple will switch it on automatically at some point during the beta cycle this summer.
This article, "Advanced AI Dictation Not Enabled by Default in iOS 27 Beta" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Samsung Display has received Apple's approval to begin module production of OLED panels for Apple's first foldable iPhone, according to a report today from TheElec.


Citing industry sources, the report says Samsung Display has started operating part of its back-end production lines in Vietnam to fulfill an initial order of around three million panels scheduled for delivery this year. Module production approval requires a supplier to demonstrate final assembly quality and mass-production stability, and Apple's threshold is reportedly a yield rate of at least 70%. Samsung Display is said to have passed that bar after achieving final yields above 80%.

Samsung Display is believed to be the exclusive supplier of OLED panels for the foldable iPhone under a three-year agreement, meaning Apple will not source foldable OLED panels from any other display maker during that period. Back-end processing, which includes adding driver circuits, flexible printed circuit boards, and protective components before final inspection and shipment, is being handled at Samsung Display's Vietnam facility. That site has around 80 production lines in total, with roughly 50 currently active, leaving capacity to spare given the relatively modest three million unit order.

The panels are expected to use Color Filter on Encapsulation (CoE) technology, which removes the polarizer and forms a color filter directly on top of the encapsulation layer, along with Samsung Display's newest M16 OLED material set. The M16 stack is said to bring improvements to brightness, color performance, lifespan, and power efficiency over prior generations.

Apple's foldable iPhone is rumored to feature a 7.8-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch cover display, along with Touch ID instead of Face ID, an A20 chip, and Apple's C2 modem, with pricing expected to start around $2,000.
This article, "Apple Approves Production of OLED Panels for Foldable iPhone" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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iOS 27 introduces a new recovery mode for iPhone and iPad that lets the device boot into an alternative, lightweight interface without loading the full operating system, similar to recovery mode on Apple silicon Macs.


To use the feature, users must turn the device off, then hold the side button to power it on. The Apple logo appears as it would during a normal boot, but holding the button for an extended duration brings up a progress bar, and the device then launches into the new recovery environment rather than continuing into iOS or iPadOS as normal. The process mirrors how recovery mode is triggered on Apple silicon Macs by holding the power button.

The new recovery screen offers five options: Recovery Assistant, Software Update, Diagnostics Mode, Erase All Content and Settings, and Recovery Mode. The interface also displays the current battery percentage in the corner of the screen and automatically connects to a known Wi-Fi network, while a power button in the toolbar lets users attempt a normal restart instead.



The addition means some last-resort repairs that previously required connecting an iPhone or ‌iPad‌ to a computer can now be carried out independently on the device itself. Apple's Recovery Assistant tool is designed to handle some of these automated fixes without further input.

The need to use the new recovery mode should remain rare. One scenario where it could come in handy is if a software update fails to install, such as when a device runs out of battery mid-update. Some iOS beta versions have in the past caused devices to soft-lock or enter boot loops, and in those cases, the Software Update option in the new recovery mode could allow a user to reinstall the last stable version of the OS without needing to put the device into DFU mode and restore it from a Mac or PC.

‌iOS 27‌ and iPadOS 27 are in developer beta testing now, with a public beta expected next month, and an official release in the fall.
This article, "iOS 27 Adds Mac-Like Recovery Mode for iPhone and iPad" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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