Technology Magazine January 2026 | Page 141

CLOUD COMPUTING

The Apple Watch is one of the most popular personal edge computers in the world. While the iPhone and iCloud are central to its ecosystem, the watch’ s most critical functions are performed locally for two simple reasons: speed and privacy. When the watch detects a hard fall or a car crash, for example, it must react instantly – it cannot afford a network delay to ask a cloud server for permission to call emergency services. Likewise, sensitive health data like your heart-rate rhythm( EKG) is processed directly on the S-series chip. This philosophy is central to Apple’ s new AI features.

“ We’ ve extended iPhone’ s industryleading security to the cloud, with what we believe is the most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI at scale,” Apple’ s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi says.“ Private Cloud Compute uses your data only to fulfill your request and never stores it, making sure it’ s never accessible to anyone, including Apple. And we’ ve designed the system so that independent experts can verify these protections.”
This hybrid approach – which starts with on-device processing – means personal data stays secure at the edge, on your wrist. technologymagazine. com 141