Apple is updating the operating systems for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, the company announced today at the company’s 32nd Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), including a powerful new feature known as Universal Control.
What wasn’t announced: any new devices.
The iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS updates come with a bevy of new features, announced in the event led and facilitated largely by Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, who oversees the development of iOS, iPadOs, and macOS. The event included the introduction of the company’s newest software features, which included, as many followers anticipated, the rollout of spatial audio on Apple Music, and updates to AirPods Pro, as well as a section on how Apple is updating its applications and devices to address privacy concerns. MacOS is receiving updates, as well, with a MacOS version update known as Monterey.
Instead, the company announced a slew of updates to its operating systems. On MacOs Monterey, the company is adding a feature, Universal Control, that will allow the use of a keyboard and cursor of a Macbook on a nearby iPad device or iMac, allowing an easy drag-and-drop of files, and more, according to a demonstration by Federighi, and will also add a feature the company calls Airplay to Mac.
“Universal Control looks fantastic,” wrote Quinn Nelson, the owner and host of Snazzy Labs Media, who was live tweeting during the event, in a tweet, noting the drag-and-drop support.
Object Capture, an API that is built on the Swift programming language developed by Apple, is becoming more widespread, announced the company, which is allowing developers to better construct augmented reality applications. The company is adding a feature, Concurrency, for its developers, as well, for Swift.
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As expected, the company added additional integrations of its applications with iMessage, adding a feature now known as “shared with you,” which saves photos sent via iMessage directly into the Photos app and links shared directly with iMessage into Apple News, along with the aggregation of news links into daily summaries, and an additional feature, Live Text, that can automatically identify, scan, highlight, and prompt action on text that appears in photographs.
The company also announced updates with Apple Wallet, indicating that the company believes an iPhone may be the only item an individual could need in their pocket, noting that the update allows the uploading and use of a governmentally issued identification card like a driver’s license, and that TSA is going to begin to accept the Wallet as identity verification as travelers move through airport security in the United States. Additionally, Hyatt Hotels will issue hotel keycards on Apple Wallet starting later this year at more than a thousand properties, Apple’s engineers announced.
The company added additional functionality and changed the design for FaceTime, which Federighi noting there are now two new options for audio in the application, voice isolation or wide spectrum use. The audio input is run through machine learning to isolate and differentiate audio sources, allowing for the isolation of a single voice source for audio, or to widen the spectrum to pick up all ambient sound. Included in the updated iOS, FaceTime will soon have a feature that allows users to schedule calls, and invite others, including those using Android or Windows devices, as long as they’re accessed through an internet browser on the device. FaceTime is also getting a boost in syncing screensharing, a move Federighi described as one that can allow groups of people to be fully immersed in an actively together, even when physically separated.
It’s an expansion of what the company calls spatial audio, which they’re bringing to other applications on iOS with the update. The company has added spatial audio to Apple Music, which the company noted is effective today.
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The company’s AirPods will also receive an update, with spatial audio playing a role in the updates to the device, as well. One new feature will allow a user wearing the device to filter out ambient noise and focus on a narrow audio field, and was designed with accessibility in mind, said Gagan Gupta, Senior Product Manager, Siri, who presented the feature. Apple’s AI assistant Siri, which the company said is used on 600 million devices each month, will now also enable the reading of certain notifications, or a grocery list made in Notes, for example, to AirPods, to better allow hands-free use and operation, said Gupta. To address the loss of AirPods, the company has added AirPods to be found using the “Find My…” app, and to allow users to set up separation notices that use the underlying bluetooth technology to notify an iOS user if AirPods happen to be separated from the device.
Siri is getting a few other updates, as well, including processing all audio data input using Siri locally on the device, a privacy move that also adds the benefit of accelerating the speed of request fulfillment, according to the Apple engineers that presented the feature. The company is also adding more transparency on how applications are sharing, or potentially sharing, data from a user’s iPhone.
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The company also announced a new application, Focus, which Federighi described as a “new way to match your device to your mindset.” It will use predictive analysis to recommend various levels of notifications based on location, for instance, and allow iPhone users to customize how, when, and which notifications to receive.
Other Apple applications will be updated, including the company’s weather application, photos application, and maps application, along with the updates to iOS 15. The iPad operating system, iPadOS 15, will see the rollout of a new feature known as Quick Notes, that integrates note-taking across applications and stores linked content in the Notes database.
The features for iPad look better than the company’s previous multitasking applications, noted Nelson in another tweet, but noted it “still looks confusing.”
The company also announced updates to its iPad application, Swift Playground, that will better enable mobile app development for iPad and iPhone on iPad devices.
