Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) for the year was streamed via the company’s YouTube channel. The keynote was recorded from Apple Park, Cupertino, California. And as usual, the event got kicked off by Apple CEO, Mr. Tim Cook. Off the several things unveiled today, we will be covering here only the consumer-facing products. The key announcements include updates to operating systems such as iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and iPadOS 15, along with the brand-new HomeOS.
Starting off with —
Best iOS 15 Features
- FaceTime gets Spatial Audio, “wide spectrum”, Voice Isolation, new grid view, Portrait mode, FaceTime link for Android, Windows, and Web, SharePlay for sharing screen and media, so that you get to listen, and watch together, PiP mode with API for 3rd party apps like Disney+, HBO Max, TikTok, Twitch, etc.
- Apple apps get deeply integrated with the Messages app via the “Shared with You” section. The links you receive on Messages can be found within the respective apps too so that you can revisit them later on.
- Notifications get a “Notification summary” that shows up an outline of your low-priority notifications (not including ones from people) at a time you choose. There are also various Focus profiles such as Work, Weekend, Personal, etc, picking any of which reorganizes your notifications and even homescreen accordingly.
- “Live Text” is an OCR capability built straight into the camera app with options like selecting text on the photos.
- Photos and cards for celebrities on Spotlight results
- “Memory Mixes” are slideshows of your photos with Apple Music background music curated on the fly.
- Weather maps are now full-screen presenting air quality, precipitation, etc with graphics for various climate conditions.
- Apple Maps get improved 3D and AR-based detailed navigation and nightmode.
- Mail Privacy Protection blocks tracking pixels hidden in the emails you receive
- Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention conceals your IP addresses.
- App Privacy Report shows the domains and details accessed by various apps
- Siri now works offline with on-device speech recognition.
- iCloud gets account recovery with the option of getting access codes from preset trusted contacts over a call. Then there’s iCloud+ that brings Private Relay (VPN) and Hide My Email for randomized proxy emails while registering for services.
- The health app gets “Walking Steadiness” which analyses your walking metrics and lets you know of fall risks. Further, there are Trends (health status over time) and you can now share the part of your health data and trends with your physician.
- Safari gets Tab Groups and extension support.
- Voice search in Safari, cross-app drag and drop, new Memoji outfits, and more.
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Other Major Announcements from WWDC 2021
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Release dates of iOS 15, iPadOS, macOS, and others
The developer beta releases of iOS 15 and other operating systems will begin from today, while the public betas will roll out from next month. And finally, the public releases will be available this fall.
