Apple’s WWDC developer conference was earlier this week, and Apple has released a ton of information about the upcoming iOS 13, iPadOS, and watchOS 6. These all look like substantial updates. No matter what Apple mobile technology you are using now, it is going to get much better in just a few months. Here is the news of note from the past week, most of which concerns these new announcements:
- California attorney David Sparks, who attended WWDC, explains how Apple is no longer putting most of its focus on the iPhone, evidenced by the great new features in iPadOS.
- Shortcuts is going to get a big update in iOS 13. One big addition is a large list of events that can be used to automatically trigger an automated task such as time of day, when you arrive at a location, when you tap an NFC tag, etc. Ryan Christoffel of MacStories discusses many of the new Shortcuts triggers.
- Another change in iOS 13 is that you will be able to swipe across the keyboard to type instead of taping each key. Put your finger on the letter T, move over to the H, and then move over to the E, and you can enter the word “the” without lifting your finger. Chance Miller of 9to5Mac explains how the new iOS 13 QuickPath swipe keyboard works.
- One new feature in iOS 13, iPadOS, and MacOS will be the new Find My app, which includes the ability to locate your device even if the screen is off and it is not connected to a network. It does this by sensing the Bluetooth of another Apple device in the vicinity, such as another iPhone. There are a lot of potential security implications here — will someone else be able to figure out where I am located, or will Apple know where I am located — but it sounds like Apple has thought through all of the issues and come up with some clever solutions that maintain privacy. Andy Greenberg of Wired wrote a really fascinating analysis of the clever cryptography behind Apple’s new Find My feature.
- Christine Chan of iMore describes some of the more obscure new features of iPadOS.
- Ryan Christoffel of MacStories also shows off some of the less obvious features of iPadOS and iOS 13.
- Jason Snell describes six of the top new features of iOS 13 in an article for Tom’s Guide.
- One (of many) changes that I’m happy to see: you can now rename a file as you save it to the Files app.
- Emily Sweeney of the Boston Globe shares the story of a woman who was paddle boarding when the wind blew her so far from the beach that she was unable to get back. But fortunately she was wearing an Apple Watch, so she was able to call for help and have her exact location provided to rescuers.
- In addition to potentially saving your life, the Apple Watch will look more interesting when watchOS 6 comes out later this year thanks to some new watch faces, as shown off by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac.
- Apple Park, the new corporate headquarters of Apple, is known for many things, including looking like a spaceship. Thomas Fuller of the New York Times reports that it is also one of a very small number of buildings in the United States to a special technology that allows the building to move so that it can stand up to earthquakes.
- If you use your iPhone as a hotspot for your iPad or computer, you’ll be interested in this article from Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac explaining how the Wi-Fi hotspot feature is improved in iOS 13.
- CarPlay is getting a major overhaul in iOS 13, with new apps like Calendar, big improvements to the interface of apps like Music, and new features such as a dashboard view which shows different information, such as a map and now playing screen, all on a single screen. Andrew O’Hara of AppleInsider writes about what is new in CarPlay and has a great video showing off all of the new features.
- Last night, I watched part of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Colbert wears an Apple Watch almost every night, and apparently he normally puts it on do not disturb mode or airplane mode before taping each show. But he forgot to do so last night, and while he was interviewing Mindy Kaling and she was talking, his watch started to vibrate because a call was coming in. He immediately put his hand over the face of the Apple Watch to stop his watch from ringing (which should work), but he must not have put his hand flat against the watch because the watch instead thought that he pressed the button to answer the phone. Suddenly the entire audience could hear a recorded voice from a Marriott Rewards program starting to play an automated message using the speaker on Colbert’s Apple Watch. Mindy Kaling was able to turn that into a pretty funny comedy bit, but it made me realize that all of us who wear an Apple Watch need to be careful to avoid this happening in court or some other environment in which you need to be quiet. If a call comes in on your Apple Watch, you can place your hand over the face to silence the ringing (or stop the vibrating, if you have sound turned off on your Apple Watch), but you need to completely cup the face without tapping any of the on-screen buttons.
- If you want your iPad Pro to look like a library book, the BookBook by Twelve South is what you need. Ed Hardy of Cult of Mac shows off the BookBook.
- Here is a trailer for Apple’s upcoming TV series coming to Apple TV+ called For All Mankind. It was created by Ron Moore (who created the fantastic reboot of Battlestar Galactica) and it looks pretty good — a world in which the space race between Russia and the U.S. never ended.
- And finally, here is a video Apple used during the WWDC keynote to announce that dark mode is coming to iOS: