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Title: Center Stage is a better vision of the Apple Intelligence era

Link: https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/c...

Apple has offered a few different variations of Center Stage ΓÇö its photo
tracking and enhancement suit ΓÇö over the years, but with the iPhone 17 line
and iPhone Air the company has designed the feature to solve a small (albeit
annoying) problem with modern smartphones. Now there's no need to change how
you hold the device to shoot portrait- or landscape-oriented selfies. It's
vintage Apple: a seemingly simply melding of hardware and software in a way
few other companies excel at.

The reason it can do this is because Apple has paired a square front-facing
camera sensor with its latest machine learning-assisted image recognition
software. This allows the iPhone 17 and its siblings to capture high-
resolution selfies and videos in any orientation.

A GIF demonstrating Center Stage in action. Apple

I hope it's also the start of a new trend toward more thoughtful and useful
AI features. For years, machine learning algorithms have powered many of the
most significant software advancements in our phones and tablets. For
instance, Apple's Photonic Engine technology wouldn't be possible without
machine learning. If you need a refresher, whenever you go to snap a photo
with a modern iPhone, the device will capture a burst of stills before and
after you press the shutter and fuse these images to reduce noise and improve
sharpness.

However, as I wrote following the end of I/O 2025, sometime in the last few
years machine learning and AI went from a means to an end to an end in and of
themselves. With large language learning models now all the rage, most
companies appear to have forgotten these technologies exist to enable new
experiences (or reduce friction in existing ones). Apple, perhaps more so
than any other company, has had trouble navigating this new era of tech with
its usual foresight and vision, with Apple Intelligence among its most
disappointing releases in recent memory. Center Stage is an example of the
company remembering the best use of AI: A way to solve actual problems.

It's too soon to tell if Apple will be able to build on its work with Center
Stage to deliver other similarly useful AI features. After all, we're still
waiting on the new, more personal Siri to arrive. In the meantime, I look
forward to every Android manufacturer copying Apple's camera design. Maybe it
will even inspire them to rethink their approach to AI.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/c...
of-the-apple-intelligence-era-160428405.html?src=rss

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