How AI upgrades Freeform, Notes, Weather, and more

Apple Intelligence has made its way into macOS 27 Golden Gate, appearing in several of the apps that are included with the operating system. For example, Image Playground delves deeper into the AI toolbox, and we find new options in Notes, Freeform, and the Weather app.

Let’s take a quick look at how AI is being used in these apps–keep in mind that this is using Beta 2 of macOS Golden Gate. Since this is beta, these features could change before the official release of Golden Gate in the fall.

Image Playground: Photorealistic images

Until now, Image Playground has been more like a playground where you could create painted or drawn images and Genmojis. In macOS 27 Golden Gate, however, the app is now capable of creating photorealistic images or modifying photos.

For example, I managed to recolor a red VW bus into a blue one–only the color changed, the rest of the photo was untouched. I did need to instruct the app twice to process parts that were not recolored. In another photo, Image Playground replaced a person’s hair with a bald head, lengthened his beard and dyed it black. It was difficult to tell that the photo was manipulated by AI editing.

Requests to create a photorealistic image of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg were also successful, but compared to real photographs, the AI images have a slightly inauthentic quality. I also asked it to render Munich’s Frauenkirche as a watercolor; I modified the request to place the building in a town square, but I didn’t specify “town square” and said only “square.” Image Playground was able to understand that I didn’t mean to simply put the picture in a square frame.

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What is striking is that Image Playground refused to generate images of real people, even if they have been dead for quite some time or a very long time. I was unable to generate a drawing of Winston Churchill or Henry VIII. Nor was I successful when I asked it to draw a picture of Prince Valiant in the style of Harold R. Foster, or Daisy Duck wearing dungarees. It seems that safeguards are in place to prevent the creation of copies of artistic works.

Notes and Freeform: Drawing

You can now draw in both Notes and Freeform using the trackpad or mouse. Whilst this isn’t as effective as using an iPad with a stylus–which is, of course, much better suited to the task–it’s perfectly adequate for quick sketches. In Notes, you can also create and insert digital signatures, just as you can already do in Preview. Notes also accesses the signatures already available in Preview.

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Freeform boasts two further new features. Boards can now be organized into folders, which you can create via a new icon in the sidebar. And when you switch on dark mode, Freeform now adapts to it and the drawing area also turns dark.

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Weather: A clearer presentation

The individual tiles in the Weather app have been rearranged. However, it seems further testing is still underway, as the layout has changed slightly between the first and second beta versions. The appearance also changes slightly when the weather warnings tile is displayed.

There are also two new views for the 10-day forecast: one for precipitation and one for wind. Instead of the bars showing the minimum and maximum temperatures and cloud cover, there is now a display showing the probability of precipitation at different times of the day, as well as the amount of rain or the wind speed and its distribution throughout the day. Whilst switching between views worked in the first beta version, it no longer works in the second. However, the developers will no doubt fix this bug.

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