Hooked on iPhone? Apple finally offers help
APPLE is trying to make us love our iPhones a little less.
Helping consumers and parents combat addiction and encourage healthier relationships with technology was on Apple’s agenda at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
The event known as WWDC offered dozens of new software capabilities and tweaks, but was short on surprise and big-picture vision for the future of personal technology. Apple CEO Tim Cook touted the success of Apple’s app store, but he and other executives who took the stage for a two-hour keynote had little to say about seismic shifts tech shifts such as artificial intelligence, which set the tone at similar conferences in May from rivals Google and Facebook.
There was also no new hardware. Unlike Apple’s other confabs, where executives take the stage to make sales pitches for new devices, WWDC was targeted at programmers who make apps for the iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch and other products. Apple previewed new versions of software, called iOS 12, WatchOS 5, tvOS 12 and MacOS Mojave, which won’t be finished and released widely for several months.
What are the most interesting new features and why do they matter? We’ve got answers. How is Apple addressing smartphone addiction?
Well, Apple executives didn’t exactly call it “addiction.” But Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi used a variety of euphemisms for it: “We might not realise just how distracted we’ve become,” he said.
He introduced three iOS 12 features to help limit distraction and help people understand how they’re using their iPhone and iPads:
1) An updated “do not disturb” mode lets you snooze notifications and other distractions for a window of time that you choose. And when you use “do not disturb” during bed time, your iPhone shows a mostly black screen until you tap the screen in the morning to dive in. No more midnight peeking!
2) There are new ways to tame the flurry of notifications from apps that want your attention. Pressing on a notification, you can tune how often you’ll get them in the future from the app that sent it. Notifications are now grouped by type, app or topic. And iOS 12 will also recommend curtailing notifications from apps you don’t often use.
3) The biggest change is a new activity report that lets you see how long you spend using each app, and let you set limits. If you go over your own limit, iOS 12 will pop up a reminder and block the app, though you can grant yourself an extension. Parents can also use this system to monitor and remotely place limits on how their children use their own devices.
These features are a welcome flag in the sand from Apple, but stop short of making Apple a leader in this space. Children still need to have their own devices — there’s still no way to switch a parent’s own iPad into a kids mode. Some of the features Google announced last month for its forthcoming Android P operating system go further. One example: When it’s getting time for you to go to bed, your Android phone will slowly fade to grey to help you “wind down”. What else is new in iOS 12?
Apple said its biggest focus was on reliability and speed, promising apps would load twice as fast in high-performance situations. There was no mention of the impact on battery life.
There’s also some new fun to . . . get you to spend even more time on your iPhone:
• Users of the iPhone X will be able to make personalized animated emojis, called MeMojis.
• Augmented reality apps using Apple’s new AR Kit 2 software let multiple people play games or enjoy experiences simultaneously.
• The Facetime video calling app now supports group conversations of up to 32 people.
• What’s new with Apple Watch?
It’s a walkie-talkie now. Yup, Watch users will be able to send short audio messages to each other with a tap. Each message is preceded by a double beep, so you can live out your movie commando dreams. Watch also got smarter about workouts, and can sense when they start and stop. Watch will also show some simple web pages, such as a restaurant menu or the text of an article, on your wrist.— Washington Post.
We might not realise just how distracted we’ve become. — Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering