The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
IT’S ABOUT TIME
Tech giant uses annual gathering to pitch ways to reduce iPhone usage while also announcing software updates to Watch, Mac
It may seem counterintuitive, but iPhone-maker Apple is offering new tools to help you use your smartphone less often. ¶ The Cupertino, Californiabased technology giant unveiled its toolbox June 4 at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, offering ways to curb smartphone addiction: a new Do Not Disturb setting for bedtimes, an application that tracks usage of apps, and the ability to set daily time limits for specific apps.
Apple’s move comes after criticism of the company from protesting Stanford students and from large company stakeholders such as the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which penned a letter criticizing the iPhone’s addictiveness — particularly for children. It also follows a similar unveiling by Google, which last month revealed new features for its upcoming Android P operating system to allow users to track their app usage and limit time on their phones.
“Some apps demand more of our attention than we realize,” said Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi. “They beg us to use their apps. For some of us, it’s become such a habit that we don’t know how distracting this is.”
Unlike Apple’s keynote last year that made a splash by unveiling the HomePod smart speaker, the company is focusing on the software at this year’s conference for developers — especially its iOS mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads.
“We commend Apple for joining the digital well-being movement and hope other tech and social media companies will do the same, as there’s a lot more work to do,” Common Sense founder and CEO James Steyer said in a statement. “Kids’ digital well-being has to be a top priority.” Common Sense is an independent nonprofit organization that provides ratings, education and advocacy for children and families in the digital age.
The company also didn’t make a “one more thing” announcement to show off a gadget at the end of the keynote Monday.
“Today is all about software,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in his keynote speech at the McEnery Convention Center. “iOS embodies our philosophy in putting our customer at the center of everything.”
Analysts who watched the keynote were divided, with some feeling the announcements were a disappointment and that Apple’s no-surprises approach was a long time coming.
“This was the year where (Apple) was going to be finessing what was out there instead of piling more stuff,” said Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi. “It wasn’t sexy. But all that they announced was key to the Apple user experience.”
iOS 12 — like the new iterations of the WatchOS, tvOS and macOS — will be available for a free update in the fall. iOS 12 also will be available to all devices which can support iOS 11, meaning iPhones as old as iPhone 5S will be able to accommodate the new features.
In addition to limiting smartphone usage, Apple introduced new features tackling another technological issue in recent headlines: privacy. In a not-sosubtle jab at Facebook, Apple’s Safari web browser in iOS 12 and other new operating systems will automatically block all “Like” and “Share” buttons on a web page, as these buttons are often used to track across websites. Users will have the option to turn off Safari’s blocking feature. The new feature won’t, however, block the “Like” button on Facebook’s own platform.
“We believe that your private data should remain private,” said Federighi. “We think you should be in control in who sees it.”
Analysts say Apple’s new privacy tools are in line with the company’s longstanding efforts — and its recent juxtaposition against Facebook, which recently was embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica databreach scandal.
“It’s a smart move for Apple to reflect the current concerns around security and privacy with new tools to prevent web companies from actively tracking your browsing activity,” said CCS Insights analyst Ben Wood.
Apple Watch also will be getting its fifth iteration of watchOS and will contain new features like a WalkieTalkie app, ability to automatically detect if the user is exercising and a new feature that allows Watch users to compete against each other in workouts.
For Gartner’s principal research analyst Tuong Nguyen, little additions like the Walkie-Talkie app was one of many new trinkets announced by Apple on Monday which have been around the market for years.
“Apple is just reinventing the wheel here,” said Nguyen. “On one hand, (the Walkie-Talkie) is very useful. But on the other hand, really, Apple?”
Apple announced new features for iOS services such as its augmented reality platform, ARKit, and Siri. In the new ARKit 2.0, iPhones will better integrate three-dimensional graphic overlays in realworld settings. The new ARKit will allow multiple iPhone or iPad users to play the same AR game against each other in the same physical environment.
In iOS 12, Siri will be able to give suggestions based on past user activities — such as ordering coffee before a morning commute — and add Siri shortcuts in either a new Shortcuts app or in specific partnered apps.
The Shortcuts announcement was a valiant effort by Apple to help close the artificial intelligence gap between Siri and its competitors, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, said Milanesi.
“I felt that (for Apple) Siri is now synonymous with AI,” said Milanesi. “If you
do something smart, Siri will be behind it for Apple.”
Apple also added new iOS features for its in-house apps such as Messages. In iOS 12, up to 32 people will be able to join the same FaceTime conversation and users can converse with one another using personalized avatars called “Memojis” using iPhone X’s facial recognition technology.
Beyond iPhones, Apple focused on its Mac computers with a new macOS dubbed Mojave, named after the Californian desert, continuing its practice of naming macOS after California’s natural landmarks like Yosemite and High Sierra.
In macOS Mojave, Macs can be displayed in a “dark mode,” will have a redesigned Mac App Store and will be able to use in-house apps found in iPhones like Voice Memos and Home for the first time.
Starting next year, Apple will provide developer frameworks to bring iOS apps to the Mac. But Federighi squashed rumors that Apple was planning to merge iOS and macOS together.