GoKawiilApple was expected to go heavy on AI and Siri at Worldwide Developers Conference 2026, and it did. The new Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features are promising. I had low hopes of finding actual use of AI in my daily life, though. Event after event, I've sat through keynotes that throw AI features I'll never use at me.
Sure, I can use AI tools to generate a video from a prompt or my phone can book me an Uber with a voice command, but I don't have much use for AI slop videos and booking a cab takes forever. I was bracing myself for another bombardment, but Apple got the AI pitch right at WWDC 26, showing ways to use its AI features that I could relate to.
For example, I've always wanted easier ways to add Shortcuts on my iPhone and wished I could change the framing of my photo while editing it. Apple isn't telling me to use my phone in new ways, but it is aiming to simplify the things I already do.
I've installed the iOS 27 Developer Beta on my iPhone Air and am already excited about what's to come. While I'm still on the Siri AI waitlist, there are four features that I can't wait to try on the stable build later this year.
Spatial Reframing gets generative AI right
The original photo (left) gets a change of perspective (middle) and Spatial Reframing fills in the background details using generative AI. Note that the building in the distance that was not visible in the original. Apple/Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET
Apple demoed a new feature in the Photos app called Reframe, which uses the Spatial Photos technology to determine depth in a flat photo. It lets you adjust a photo's composition in post edits. Once you're satisfied with the new angle in the shot, the Photos app uses generative AI to fill in any areas around the edges.
As a novice photographer, I realize only later when reviewing a shot that I could've framed it better. There are times when I don't notice a disturbance in the background and need to remove it with the Clean Up tool or Object Eraser. However, it doesn't necessarily look natural every time, so the ability to readjust the angle in a composition is a great idea.
Instead of creating a cutout of a person and placing them in a different position, you can adjust the angle of how you framed the shot. This way, the separation between the subject and the background doesn't look jarring. As CNET Senior Writer Jeff Carlson pointed out in his story, you can also apply such changes by using Photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom, which lets you adjust the plane of the entire photo, but at the cost of distorting the image. In contrast, Apple's take keeps the photo resolution after implementing the changes.
Creating Shortcuts with natural language
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