The highly anticipated iPhone 16 is available now, September 20, in stores worldwide. And to celebrate the launch, the iconic Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York City is now sporting special colors reminiscent of Apple Intelligence, the new Siri interface that is considered one of the flagship features of the new iPhones.
A luminous cube in the colors of AI
Customers lining up outside the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue Thursday night to be among the first to buy an iPhone 16 Friday morning could see that the iconic glass cube was lit up in the same rainbow colors as the new Siri interface powered by Apple Intelligence. “iPhone 16” and “Hello Apple Intelligence” stickers also adorn the facade. The AI spotlight comes as Apple made Apple Intelligence a major focus of its September keynote, touting the technology as a game changer for the iPhone and the company’s ecosystem.
This isn’t the first time Apple has customized the store to showcase a new product. Earlier this year, a massive replica of the Apple Vision Pro was installed on the cube to promote the launch of the mixed reality headset.
Apple Intelligence not yet available
Despite all of Apple’s communication around the AI capabilities of the iPhone 16, Apple Intelligence features like the new, more advanced Siri, Genmoji or Image Playgrounds will not be available at launch. We will have to wait for iOS 18.1 next month to enjoy the first tools like writing aids, article and notification summaries, audio transcription or even the cleaning function in the Photos app.
Apple Intelligence will initially only work in US English, before being extended to other variants of English later this year with iOS 18.2. Support for other languages like Chinese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese is planned for next year. Despite the absence of these features at launch, the iPhone 16 already promises some nice improvements with better cameras, the Camera Control button, and more powerful processors.
#Apple Fifth Avenue is glowing! pic.twitter.com/cE4R8D1nKE
— Retail Archive (@RetailArchive) September 19, 2024
This is probably the first time that Apple has gone all out in terms of communication on a feature that is not available. Seeing this colored cube in front of the New York store, iPhone 16 customers might think that Intelligence is directly available on their new iPhone. Apple will have to be careful not to disappoint its customers too much with promises that, for the moment, have not been kept.
