Yesterday, Apple released major software updates for many of its products, including iOS 17 for the iPhone, iPadOS 17 for the iPad, and watchOS 10 for the Apple Watch. These updates add a large number of new features for all of these products. In some cases, they also change the way that the products work, so you may have to retrain your muscle memories. The changes on the Apple Watch, for example, are fairly substantial because every button now does something brand new. Thus, while I know that you will eventually want to upgrade, this might be an upgrade to postpone for a few days until you are ready to start adapting to changes.
I provided a preview of the new features when the first beta versions were announced a few months ago. We now have interactive widgets, the new StandBy mode on the iPhone, you can drop the "Hey" in "Hey Siri" if you want, autocorrect is better than ever, and there are countless other improvements. If you want an exhaustive look at everything that is new for the iPhone and iPad, Federico Viticci of MacStories posted his annual comprehensive review.
I just updated my devices and I haven't had much chance to dig into everything, but I look forward to doing so in the coming days and weeks. I promise you that when I find features that really stand out to me, I'll mention them here and on the In the News podcast.
