WWDC 2021 Highlights and Discussion

[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.


…….

[Almamida]

I love the intro videos

[Almamida]

Ready for the disappointed comments.
For my part, we get small evolution, as expected. New multitask seems to be well thought.

[JSWolf]

Messages meets Zoom and copies/steals features.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Messages meets Zoom and copies/steals features.

That is what Apple does. It's even a verb in the Apple community.

[pwalker8]

The Swift playground for the iPad is pretty cool. I think that the main focus seems to be interdevice operations, i.e. making your various Apple devices work together better. Of course, the proof is in the puddling.

[tomsem]

The multitasking improvements and ability to use keyboard shortcuts to control it will be welcome.

Maybe it was mentioned in the Keynote but Universal Control is a major improvement to Sidecar:

Use your keyboard, mouse, and trackpad across Mac and iPad
Use a single keyboard, mouse, or trackpad to work between your devices. When you move from your Mac to your iPad, the cursor for your mouse or trackpad transforms from an arrow to a round dot, automatically changing shape to the one that is best suited for the device.

Drag and drop content between devices
Use your mouse or trackpad to drag and drop content between your devices, perfect for when you’re sketching a drawing with Apple Pencil on your iPad and want to drop it into Keynote on your Mac.

And UC works with ‘up to 3 devices’ (3 macs? 3 iPads? Any combo? It’s not clear)

[OtinG]

I like the new Widget formats and placement capabilities in iPadOS 15 and the Universal Control feature in macOS Monterey.

As usual, most of the updates are little more than fluff, but we are used to that with Apple.

I wish they would have left the Apps Library out of iPadOS, or at least maybe they will give us a toggle ability so we don't have to look at it and/or know that it is taking up a page at the tail end. The ability to rearrange pages is nice, but not if I have to have the Apps Library page forced on me.

My hope is that they will fix the bugs and glitches in iPadOS. I had several of same plague me as I was typing the first post of this thread using my iPad Air 2020 and Logitech Folio Keyboard case. They really need to at least make typing a simple document less of a headache. I wound up having to use my finger a lot to select items and scroll as the trackpad was really glitchy. Not sure if that was iPadOS being itself or the hardware. Either way, it shouldn't be that glitchy.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I wish they would have left the Apps Library out of iPadOS, or at least maybe they will give us a toggle ability so we don't have to look at it and/or know that it is taking up a page at the tail end. The ability to rearrange pages is nice, but not if I have to have the Apps Library page forced on me.

For the iPad, wasn't Apps Library supposed to be in the dock? I think this would actually be very useful for multitasking since it's nearly impossible to add apps to split-view/slide-over when the app is not on the dock.

I'll be on the public beta on the 2021 Pro as soon as that's available. Depending on Marvin, might keep iPadOS 14 on my 2017 Pro.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

For the iPad, wasn't Apps Library supposed to be in the dock? I think this would actually be very useful for multitasking since it's nearly impossible to add apps to split-view/slide-over when the app is not on the dock.

I was listening and typing at the same time while trying to watch as much as I could, so I really didn't see whether it is activated from the dock or not. I do hope they allow us to toggle it on and off somehow though.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I wish they would have left the Apps Library out of iPadOS, or at least maybe they will give us a toggle ability so we don't have to look at it and/or know that it is taking up a page at the tail end. The ability to rearrange pages is nice, but not if I have to have the Apps Library page forced on me.

As far as I can tell, it will work the same as on iPhone. If I remember correctly, when it turns on it hides all but first two home pages, but you can go back and unhide any that you still want to see. And now in iOS 15 it seems you can rearrange the pages.

Apps Library hasn’t caught on with me, either, it makes it harder to delete or move apps (on hidden pages), and I have no idea which AL group they are in most of the time.

I just use Spotlight for the most part to find things (select a MRU Siri Suggested app, or type a couple of keys to find others). I do have too many apps installed.

They said Spatial Audio/Lossless for Apple Music is coming today? But I’m still not seeing it on any of my (qualifying) devices.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tomsem

They said Spatial Audio/Lossless for Apple Music is coming today? But I’m still not seeing it on any of my (qualifying) devices.

I saw a message in the Apple TV app on my Apple TV 4K this morning when I went to watch the Keynote that said something about an Apple Music presentation that follows the Keynote. Maybe they are waiting for that to finish.

BTW, I opened Apple Events on my ATV 4K this morning to watch the Keynote and got the message, “Apple Events is now part of the Apple TV app.” It redirected me to the Apple TV app. So apparently the Apple Events app has been retired. There was a recent tvOS 14.6 update that must have made those changes. For the April event I still had to use the Apple Events app.

[OtinG]

The event sure showed a lot of Memojis , but I don’t remember them talking much about them. The conference graphics feature a lot of high definition Memojis that look way better than what we see in iOS/iPadOS 14. I wonder if they are updating them or just being artistic for the conference.

[OtinG]

Oddly enough, if you want to view the latest Apple Events from today on the ATV 4K, you still have to open the Apple Events app. It redirects you to what it says is the Apple TV app. However, the only thing available to select are Apple Events, and you can’t get to other programming in the Apple TV app. Really strange. If you directly open the Apple TV app you can find older events by using the Search feature, but there is no tab or button for them. So apparently for now, you have to open the Apple Events app, it redirects you to a screen that says “Apple Events” even though the button says Apple TV. Very kluge and confusing. I guess they have no idea where they are heading with these apps as far as events go.

[JSWolf]

I've been watching these announcements using the Apple TV app on my 4k Amazon Fire Stick that I got last Prime Day.