APPLE UNVEILS SOFTWARE UPDATES ACROSS THE BOARD
SAN FRANCISCO — The pandemic isn’t stopping one of tech’s summertime standbys: Apple unveiling updates to the software of the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch … and maybe a few product surprises, too.
This year, however, Apple’s WWDC— which stands for Worldwide Developers Conference — is going virtual. On Monday, CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives started streaming their announcements online instead of presenting them in person to a convention center audience filled with app developers.
In a slickly produced prerecorded video, Cook started the event by talking about systemic racism and the protests which he said have caused people to face long-standing issues of racism, and recognize the pain being felt throughout the nation. He recapped the company’s recent $100 million racial equity and justice initiative.
“This country was founded on the principles of freedom and equality for all. For too many people and for too long, we haven’t lived up to those ideals,” said Cook.
He also briefly mentioned the pandemic and thanked health care providers. Cook spoke directly to the camera from the stage of the Steve Jobs theater. He was wearing his usual dark button down, but the 1,000 seats usually filled with press and developers were empty behind him.
The new format, streamed from various rooms offstage at the Apple campus, included the same types of product demos as most years. But the event took on a distinctive marketing campaign feel with the lack of executives’ usual stage presence and a cheering employee audience, giving it the feel of a very long commercial.
iOS 14
Apple started the show with updates to the software that runs its biggest product: the iPhone. There’s nothing revolutionary in iOS 14, but it includes some tweaks that help Apple play catch up with Android and archrival Google’s services - but done in an Apple way.
The iOS home screen hasn’t changed much over the years from rows and rows of apps that look like a lineup of chiclets. With iOS 14, you can now add “widgets,” which are windows with live information from apps, such as the weather. It gives you one more reason to look down at your phone screen but could save you a few taps from opening common apps.
Apple’s Messages app for texts and conversations is most-important social network in many lives. With iOS 14, you can pin your most-important conversations to the top of the screen. And there are new ways to customize the cartoon mini-mes known as Memojis. (You can even make yours wear a mask now.) There’s no change, alas, to Apple’s most-requested Messages change: It still isn’t compatible with Android or Microsoft devices.
Apple is also diving deeper into translation. Voice assistant Siri has been able to help translate phrases, but a new dedicated translation app can live translate a conversation on-screen, even automatically recognizing what language is being spoken.
And in the future, iPhones running iOS 13 or 14 will be able to replace car keys on compatible autos. Tesla vehicles already do this using the phone’s bluetooth connection. Apple’s approach uses different technology: either the near-field communication (NFC) system used by Apple Pay, or the wideband wireless that Apple built into its latest phones. This will require cars to have compatible hardware; the first is the 2021 BMW 5 Series, available next month.
And last but not least, Apple’s App Store is also finally giving us some much-needed help with privacy. It’s very difficult for people to understand what apps are doing with their data. Apps will now have to report some data practices in a few simplified boxes, modeled after nutrition labels.
iPadOS 14
iPad will also get some tweaks in the upcoming update to its operating system, iPadOS 14. The built-in Apple apps like Photos and Files are continuing their slow creep to being more Mac-like, with sidebars for moving things around and easier navigation. There are more pop-down menus and refreshed toolbars, many of which seemed designed to make it easier to do more small tasks while keeping whatever you’re looking at in the center of the screen.
The iPad search feature is becoming more like Spotlight, the search option on Macs. It can launch apps, search documents and contacts for keywords, and bring up web results. Instead of taking over the screen anytime you search, the window will appear on top of whatever is open. Similarly, incoming phone calls will not fill the entire screen but just pop up as a small window.
Apple Pencil, the company’s take on a stylus, is adding more options for handwriting. You can use it in any text field or someplace like the notes app and it will automatically transcribe what you write. There are new options for shape recognition, as well.
AirPods
Apple’s wireless headphones are adding a feature to make it easier when you switch between devices. Instead of having to wade into settings and mess with Bluetooth connections, the AirPods should now automatically reconnect to other devices when you start using them.
The AirPod Pros are also adding “spatial audio,” which Apple says will improve audio quality in the headphones to make things sound more immersive. It is supposed to mimic the way audio sounds in a movie theater, a place people used to go to watch films in one room before the pandemic.
WatchOS 7
The Apple Watch, already one of the most popular fitness trackers, is getting smarter about tracking some other everyday activities - from hand washing, to sleeping … to dancing.
With the update, the Watch will look out for the signs you’re at a sink, from the way you move your hands, to the sound of water swooshing by. Then the Watch will give you a countdown to make sure you spend the doctor-recommended amount of time cleaning away all those nasty germs.
Apple is also adding its own sleep-tracking capability to the Watch. Working with an iPhone, it will remind you to wind-down to go to bed. You wear the Watch while you sleep, with the screen automatically turning off. It’ll wake you in the morning with a series of taps or an alarm.
For fitness buffs, the Apple Watch will now measure more types of workouts, including different types of dancing, and core workouts. And with some improvements to Apple’s Maps service, you can now also get biking directions on the Watch.