WWDC conference: Apple reveals new privacy features, software updates
The next iOS will make it harder for newsletters, marketers, and websites to track you when you use apps and the web.
Apple has spent almost two hours announcing an avalanche of new software features coming to iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watch and Apple TV.
The keynote usually is given to a live audience at the start of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) but the pandemic has seen the conference being held virtually on video for the second year. The keynote ran for two hours from 3am AEST and opened, sadly, with Tim Cook being applauded by a theatre full of animated characters rather than regular humans.
No new hardware was launched at the keynote. Rather the upgrades will come to Apple users’ existing devices with a developer version of new operating systems rolling out now, a public beta of trial versions in July open to all, and final versions released in the Australian spring.
The virtual WWDC will continue with more than 200 in-depth sessions and one-to-one discussions with Apple engineers to be streamed this week.
It’s hard to single out big standouts among what was presented, it’s more a solid laundry list of changes that will make the Apple experience more compelling to users. Nevertheless here are some highlights.
IPHONE UPDATES (iOS15)
Apple FaceTime
FaceTime is being rebadged as a fully fledged video communications system along the lines of Zoom and others.
You can set FaceTime session links using Apple Messages, emails, WhatsApp and share the event calendar entry not only with other Apple users but also with friends who use Windows and Android devices; they too will be able to participate in FaceTime discussions for the first time.
Portrait is leveraging the technology it uses for blurring photo backgrounds with portrait mode to let video participants blur their background. Clever audio tricks will create the illusion of voices coming from the section of the screen where the user appears and audio can be set to either reduce background noise or include everyone around.
A new share play feature will let users bring music into the call, watch movies and TV shows and share the screen.
You’ll be able to beam the video shared on a FaceTime call to your Apple TV. In the US, HOB Max, Hulu, Disney, TikTok and Paramount are participating in the project.
Apple Messages
Friends will invariably send you articles, music and photos when you don’t have time to view them. Messages will now place those stories and media in other parts of Apple’s ecosystem so you can enjoy them later. A new section in Apple News will house articles shared with you, music shared with you will be in a new Apple Music section and the same applies to shared photos in Apple’s Photos app.
Notifications
Apple as predicted is giving users more control over notifications using a feature called focus. You can control what notifications you get based on your current status such as when you are working or at night. At work, you can choose to be only notified by co-workers, or outside work, be notified only by friends and family. The focus can be based on your location and time of day. The focus set-up with one device impacts notifications on all your Apple devices. In addition Apple can supply you with a notification summary that you can schedule to be sent at any time. Apple says urgent messages will still be able to get through.
Photos
This was possibly the coolest technical innovation of the morning. Apple is using artificial intelligence to interpret text and images in a photo. You can select text in a photo and email it, or select a phone number in a photo and call it. You can tap on a dog in a photo and look up its breed, or the variety of a flower. In addition, Spotlight will be able to find text in photos. You can find people in your photo library even where they aren’t tagged in captions. It’s similar to a feature Google developed some time ago for Android, but Apple is presenting it with its own Apple twist.
Apple Wallet
The variety of items you store in Apple Wallet is expanding. Initially, wallet held credit cards and loyalty cards. This was expanded to flight boarding passes and bus passes. Now there are new capabilities, albeit that most are likely to be US focused for now. You’ll be able to add your car keys to wallet (BMW is on board with this), unlock your house or apartment, get hotel keys before you arrive at Hyatt hotels, and open digital locks. Apple showed a slide indicating several lock makers were on board with that. In some areas of the US, you’ll be able to store your digital identity in Apple wallet. Driving license ID and IDs for TSA airport security checkpoints in the US were mentioned.
Apple Maps
The standout feature is the new graphics which will show details such as freeway lanes and landmarks along roads. Bike lanes and renders of interchanges in 3D are on the cards. The extent to which this rolls out in Australia remains to be seen. Nevertheless Australia is among new countries to get some of the 3D building effects that Apple has developed for US use. A new night time mode for Maps will have a moonlit glow, and Apple is improving its public transport information so that transit riders can find nearby stations. Information will flow to Apple Watch and you’ll be prompted when to disembark. On the ground, there’ll be detailed directions in augmented reality, but not yet in Australian cities. Public transport and AR directions is an area where Apple lags behind Google.
AirPods and audio
People with mild hearing problems will be able to use AirPods and AirPods Pro to help improve their healing of conversations. They’ll be able to reduce ambient noise. You’ll be able to receive audio notifications and Siri will read your shopping list when you are at the supermarket. You’ll be able to locate missing AirPod Pro and AirPod Max sets with Apple’s Find Me app, and you can get a notification if you leave your AirPods behind. Apple also is rolling out full surround sound with AirPods Max. Apple’s recent announcements to music quality including spatial audio is rolling out with Dolby Atmos quality tracks from some artists available from today.
IPAD CHANGES (iPadOS15)
Layout and multi-tasking
Apple is allowing more liberal placement of apps and widgets on the iPad. You can place widgets among apps and widgets can make use of larger formats. There’s now a game centre widget, Apple TV widget and photos widget. Apple has brought the App library from the iPhone to iPad. It automatically sorts apps into folders and can be accessed directly from the dock if you wish. You can reorder and hide pages. There’s a new multi-tasking control bar at the top of the screen and with it more options for displaying and using multiple apps simultaneously. You’ll be able to create views comprising a series of apps to be opened side-by-side and switch between those views.
Notes and Quick Note
Apple has enhanced the capabilities when multiple people collaborate using Apple Notes. People will get notified if they are mentioned in a conversation. The new Quick note feature lets you open a new note by pressing at the bottom right of an iPad. You can quickly scribble notes with Apple Pencil and add links in the note to a website you are currently viewing. You can swipe to view all your quick notes. You’ll be able to translate a note written with Apple Pencil. The system works out which language the note is written in. You’ll be able to translate text in a photo in Apple iOS, iPadOS and MacOS.
PRIVACY
Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi announced more restrictions on the ability of third parties to glean the details of users when using apps and browsing the web. In Mail, Apple will hide your IP address and location so that neither can be obtained. Parties won’t be able to work out when and if you have opened your emails. You’ll be able to get an app privacy report with details of who has accessed your data across apps. You’ll also be able to set-up randomly created email addresses to write emails without giving away your regular email address. It’s a service similar to that already available from sites such as 33mail.com but now integrated into Apple Mail. Apple has also beefed-up iCloud with new privacy features in a service called iCloud+. You can use ‘private relay’ to surf the web using encryption. Apple says no one, including Apple, will know who you are and what sites you are visiting.
On device Siri
Personal assistants generally cease to work when your phone or tablet isn’t connected to the internet. That’s because the heavy lifting done to interpret what you are asking is done in the cloud. Apple however is making some Siri commands capable of being parsed and activated on the device without any internet connectivity. And it works quickly. Apple showed a user tapping the side of the phone and issuing a battery of commands one-after-the-other in quick succession. If you are sick of Siri’s existing voice, you can change to alternative Siri voices that Apple is rolling out.
Legacy Contacts
You can add family and friends to your Apple Account as legacy contacts and they will be able to access your information when you pass away.
HEALTH
Apple is adding to the conditions that its phones and watches can monitor. The first is walking steadiness, something worth knowing about as a precursor to falls with elderly people. It says it has used a dataset of 100,000 users to study how it can determine steadiness by monitoring them. You will be notified if your steadiness is low and Apple believes you are at risk of falling. The health app also will contain detailed information about cholesterol so you can better interpret a cholesterol report, and a new feature called Health Trends will notify you about the long term changes and new trends it sees in your health data over time. In addition a user will be able to share their health data with family members if they wish to, and with their health provider. You can set-up the Health app so that you receive notifications about health alerts, for example, should an elderly loved one’s heart rate has increased over time. Data is sent in an encrypted form.
APPLE WATCH
The coming software update to Apple Watch, WatchOS 8, will track respiratory rates and offer Tai Chi and pilates workouts. Apple Fitness + will feature new music to train by, with a new spotlight series featuring artists Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, and Keith Urban. Watch will be capable of building a portrait watch face that features an image of you taken from your iPhone snaps. The Photos app on Apple Watch will display memory highlights and featured photos, and you can share photos and more easily edit text messages from your watch. Watch will show you next-hour precipitation in weather reports, and you can set multiple timers.
HOMEKIT
You’ll be able to tap your iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock the front door if you have a compatible smart lock and the system set-up through the Apple HomeKit app. Devices will be better connected. You can ask Siri on a HomePod mini to play media on Apple TV. Your Apple system will create a collection of movies based on all family interests that you share and HomePod mini will be capable of personalised voice recognition. You’ll be able to broadcast a message with Apple Watch, and see who is at the door with the twist of your wrist if you have connected cameras. You can display the output of multiple cameras to see what is happening around the house.
MACOS MONTEREY
Apple has named this year’s MacOS operating system after Monterey Bay south of and San Francisco and San Jose. The new FaceTime features will come to Mac, as will the iPhone Focus feature centred around reducing distractions, and the changes to Notes and Quick Notes. The standout feature is ‘Universal Control’. You can set-up an iPad and Mac side-by-side and use a single keyboard and mouse to control both devices. You swap between using devices by moving your cursor from one to the other. You can even drag and drop files between them. Airplay to Mac will let you draw a sketch and your colleagues can watch on a bigger display with Apple TV. The ShortCuts app on the iPhone is coming to the Mac with a gallery of pre-created ones. For example, you could create a shortcut that opens a series of apps including the Music App when you need to work. Shortcuts supersedes Automator. Safari on the Mac has a new ‘tab groups’ feature which lets you save a series of tabs on a chosen subject or task without cluttering the tab bar. You can share tab groups by dropping them into emails. Tab groups also are being made available on the iPhone or iPad. On the iPhone you swipe near the bottom of the screen to access them.