[OtinG]

WWDC 2021 Highlights

A lot of new features, but nothing super spectacular IMO. Typical incremental updates.

Absolutely no new hardware was introduced, not that I expected it to be.


iOS 15

• FaceTime: New Spatial Audio feature. Voice isolation to block background noise. New Grid View. New Portrait mode. New Facetime Links to share with others. Facetime calls can be done via web browser in Android. New Share Play where you share your screen. New Screen Sharing feature.
• Messages: Shared with You feature in News, Photos, Apple Music, Podcast, etc.
• Notifications: New Summary feature. New Do Not disturb feature. New Focus feature.
• Photos: New Live Text feature. Photos Spotlight feature. Visual Lookup search feature. Photos search feature on Home screen. Photos Memories feature.
• Wallet: More keys. New ID Cards feature.
• Weather: New design. New WX graphics. Full screen WX maps.
• Apple Maps: New Globe view. New City details, elevations, nighttime mode, etc. Better graphics for navigation. Improved transit view. Building scanner for location ID.
• Apple TV Siri Remote app: iOS 15 has a redesigned Apple TV Siri Remote interface in the Control Center that resembles new ATV Siri Remote now being sold. (See post 23 below for screenshot.) [ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]
• Wheel-style Dial Picker returns: iOS 15 brings back the large wheel-style dial picker for entering time. [ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]
• Mail Privacy Protection: This prevents email tracking pixels from secretly opening when you open email and stops them from tracking that you have opened it. When enabled, Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address and loads all remote content privately in the background, routing it through multiple proxy services and randomly assigning an IP address. [ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]
• Cross-App Drag and Drop: You can pick up images, documents, and files from one app and drag them into another. It is rather convoluted and nonintuitive though. [ADDED ON 13 Jun 2021]
• Listen to Background Sounds for Relaxation: To enable select Settings—>Accessibility —>Audio/Visual —>Background Sounds, then on the Background Sounds screen:
  1. Turn ON Background Sounds.
  2. Click Sound and chose an option from Balanced Noise, Bright Noise, Dark Noise, Ocean, Rain, or Stream. [ADDED ON 15 Jun 2021]

iPadOS 15

• Widgets can be placed in more places on the Home screen.
• New larger Widget format. Apps Library added to iPadOS.
• Can hide and reorder pages via Apps Library.
• New multitasking features.
• New Shelf feature in multitasking.
• Notes has new features like Mention, Add, Quick Notes, Links.
• Translate is now available on iPadOS.
• Swift Playgrounds adds the ability to build apps on iPad.
• iPhone apps in Landscape: iPhone only apps can run in landscape mode on the iPad in iPadOS 15. They will be pillarboxed though. [ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]
• Mail Privacy Protection: This prevents email tracking pixels from secretly opening when you open email and stops them from tracking that you have opened it. When enabled, Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address and loads all remote content privately in the background, routing it through multiple proxy services and randomly assigning an IP address. [ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]
• Listen to Background Sounds for Relaxation: To enable select Settings—>Accessibility —>Audio/Visual —>Background Sounds, then on the Background Sounds screen:
  1. Turn ON Background Sounds.
  2. Click Sound and chose an option from Balanced Noise, Bright Noise, Dark Noise, Ocean, Rain, or Stream. [ADDED ON 15 Jun 2021]

watchOS 8

• New health features.
• New fitness features.
• New portrait watch faces.
• Photos app redesigned. New Messages features.

macOS 12 Monterey

• Focus feature to keep notifications at bay.
• Universal Control allows a single mouse and keyboard for both Mac and iPad seamlessly. Just place the iPad next to the Mac.
• AirPlay to Mac. Instead of AirPlay to TV it goes to the Mac display.
• Shortcuts coming to the Mac.
• Safari has a new interface. Tabs are more streamlined. Tablets (sp?) allow you to group tabs. Web extensions are now available
• Mail Privacy Protection: This prevents email tracking pixels from secretly opening when you open email and stops them from tracking that you have opened it. When enabled, Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address and loads all remote content privately in the background, routing it through multiple proxy services and randomly assigning an IP address. [ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]

[ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]

According to a MacRumors article, several of the new features in macOS 12 Monterey will only work on a Mac with the M1 chip. Here is a short list of features from the article that require an M1 chip:

• Portrait Mode blurred backgrounds in FaceTime videos
• Live Text for copying and pasting, looking up, or translating text within photos
• An interactive 3D globe of Earth in the Maps app
• More detailed maps in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London in the Maps app
• Text-to-speech in more languages, including Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish
• On-device keyboard dictation that performs all processing completely offline
• Unlimited keyboard dictation (previously limited to 60 seconds per instance)

[/ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]


Air Pods

• Conversation boost feature.
• Announce notifications feature.
• Location feature.
• Spatial audio expanded.

[ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]

Okay I went back and rewatched the AirPods section of the Keynote video which appears at about 34:20-37:40. I turned on CC to ensure I heard everything properly.

Note: Via more analysis, the Conversation Boost feature appears to be available only on AirPods Pro. Apparently it will not be available on non-Pro AirPods or AirPods Max.

Conversation Boost

• Specifically states AirPods Pro but doesn’t mention non-pro model. (Not available on non-Pro.)
• Helps those with mild hearing challenges.
• Uses computational audio and beamforming microphones to focus the AirPods Pro on the person talking in front of you (assuming you are facing them).
• You can also reduce the amount of ambient noise in settings.

[/ADDED ON 10 Jun 2021]


Privacy

• Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address, etc.
• Safari also can hide your IP address from trackers.
• Siri has new voices and features.
• iCloud new Account Recovery contact help and new Legacy Access for deceased users information.
• iCloud+ new service (same price as iCloud) for encryption of web surfing and hiding mail and Home Kit video security.

Health

• New Walking Steadiness feature To assess your risk of falling.
• New detailed descriptions to help you better understand your lab results.
• You can now select to share encrypted data with your doctors.

Home

• HomeKit can use iPhone to unlock front door.
• Can share with friends while watching TV in different locations.
• HomePod Mini can be used for TV sound.
• Siri can talk to home devices without going through 3rd party apps.

Developer Technologies

This is beyond the scope of what most people in this forum will interested in, so I am skipping over this portion of the Keynote.


…….