iOS 15, iPadOS 15, WatchOS 8, MacOS Monterey: Apple has unveiled all the new software and new features.
As per tradition, Apple's June is dedicated to the presentation of the new iOS, which will be followed by the various betas until the final release in September, the month in which the new devices from the Cupertino house will also arrive, iPhone 13 and Apple Watch 7 above all. . But let's go with order and let's see the main news presented during WWDC 2021 for the main OS of the Cupertino house.
Call Facetime
The first novelty of iOS 15 will be an update of Facetime: the new OS will simplify group calls, offering the possibility to see all the participants in video at the same time and to share with them the screen of their device, music or even a video stream. Imagine you want to tell your friends about a TV series that you are passionate about: just make a call and share the screen, for example to start the trailer of the series and comment on it while everyone will automatically see it appear on their screen.
At the moment the feature has been announced as compatible with Disney +, HBO Max, TikTok, NBA, Twitch: important names are missing, first of all Netflix, but we expect that following a massive use by users the various streaming services will evaluate the implementation of the functionality.
But it doesn't stop there, because at WWDC 2021 we discovered that Facetime will become cross device and cross platform with Facetime Links: directly from the Facetime app it will be possible to share - via messages, Whatsapp, mail, etc. - a link that anyone, even a Windows or Android user, can use to connect to the call via a web browser. Surely a service that winks at what Microsoft has done with Skype or Teams, and aimed at facilitating both the connection between friends and the collaboration between work teams in this period in which smart working has made a great leap forward.
No less important news regarding Facetime calls will then concern video and audio: portrait mode will also arrive on Facetime calls, so as to allow you to blur the screen and leave the focus on the subject; as regards the audio, however, the new OS will offer two different possibilities, which will respectively allow to cancel the background noises by focusing the voice, or to include also the environmental sounds (for example to make the voice heard by the interlocutor if two or more people in the same room are calling another, or if you are calling a friend while at an event or concert).
Notifications, DND and Focus
Moving on to notifications, iOS 15 will also see a slight graphic redesign of notifications, with larger and identifiable app icons and thumbnails of contact photos directly on the lockscreen, so as to understand immediately who is writing to us. The Focus mode, then, will be an improvement of the current do not disturb mode, which will offer much more customization by allowing you to decide how many and which notifications to filter in the various periods of the day and while you are performing certain activities.. For example, it will be possible to decide not to receive messages and phone calls while exercising or watching a movie, but at the same time you can select contacts who can still “disturb us” if necessary. But it does not end there, because the new Focus mode will allow you to customize the Home Screen and widgets, for example hiding games and leisure apps during working hours and vice versa showing other apps at the time of day when you train or you have free time for recreation. All cross-device and reproducible / customizable on all your devices in the Apple ecosystem.
Live Text
Another very useful tool for study or work (and very similar to Google Lens) shown at WWDC 2021 is the possibility to photograph text in order to be able to select, copy, paste in an editor and modify it. The system is also able to recognize telephone numbers (think for example of photographing a restaurant advertisement and being able to call it or search for reviews on the Internet in a few taps) and integrates with spotlight, allowing you to search - as well as obviously the text possibly contained in the photos - even animals, plants, flowers and monuments in your own photographic library.
Wallet
Wallet will allow you to save in your smartphone (or Apple Watch) a greater number of virtual keys, such as those of the car or hotel rooms. Within the year, thanks to the data protection that is the same as Apple Pay, Apple intends to make it possible to insert personal documents such as an identity card and driving license in Wallet, so that the user can really leave the wallet to home and still have everything you need with you. Initially the latter option will be active only in the USA, but we expect that sooner or later it will also reach us.
Maps and Weather
Maps will grow further, with a graphic revamp that will include many more details such as bridges and buildings, as well as support a renewed "moonlight" mode at night. At WWDC 2021 it was then shown how on foot, in the main cities it will be possible to take a photo of the surroundings to allow the smartphone to identify exactly our position, to then show us the indications in augmented reality directly on the screen.
Privacy
There is obviously no shortage of news also from the point of view of privacy, with Apple showing itself as always very attentive on this front: iOS 15 will allow not to let the sender know if an email has been opened or not; Siri will, as far as possible, be processed directly on the device and will depend less and less on the Internet connection; App Privacy Report is an analysis that will show the user in detail which apps have used sensitive data such as location, camera, microphone and photo library. A separate point deserves the compatibility of iOS15 with apple smartphones: unlike what is predicted by the rumors, iPhone 6s will be included among the upgradeable devices, since the new OS can be installed on all systems that currently support iOS 14. Excellent news, especially in response to the accusations that a few years ago had seen Apple pointed to the planned obsolescence foreseen for smartphones that at the hardware level could still receive updates.
iPadOS 15
iPad has, since iOS 14, its own custom OS. In detail, WWDC 2021 confirmed that on the Cupertino tablet we will find all the features of iOS 15 plus some exclusive features: first of all the possibility, as already happens on the iPhone, to insert widgets also on the Home Screen, even with important dimensions specially designed for the large iPad screen (very interesting and comfortable, for example, the new widget designed for the File app). iPadOS 15 will see the arrival of the app library on the iPad, the convenient function already present on the iPhone from iOS 14 for which the system automatically organizes all the apps on the device by categorizing them, allowing the user to delete certain apps from the Home Screen to have them only in the library.
Multitasking, already present on the iPad for some time, is simplified in its management, with a special menu and dedicated gestures that will allow you to place different windows side by side in a more intuitive way. On this same path of simplification, it will also come Quick Note: a way to take notes on the fly by opening the appropriate app simply with a swipe from the corner of the iPad screen with the stylus.
In this way we will have a text window always in the foreground that will work in multitasking with the Safari tab or the app from which we want to copy text or take notes.
Also new for Safari on iPad: combining the search, the url bar and the search, the new Safari offers a cleaner and redesigned interface to give as much space as possible to the site you are browsing. You can create groups of cards instantly synchronized with iPhone and iMac, so as to resume browsing from any device, always having your favorite sites at hand.
The novelties for iPad announced at WWDC 2021 conclude with the new one translator, able to recognize and translate the language in which our interlocutor is speaking in real time, e Swift Playgrounds, the app dedicated to app programming and so far relegated to the Mac environment only. Obviously, all the creations on iPad can be exported to Mac and vice versa so that the user can work on their project in cross-device mode.
iPadOS 15 will be available for all iPads listed in the image below. We report the compatibility with iPad Air 2, which like the iPhone 6s is the oldest device on the list and seeing it included in the list can only make us feel the great optimization work that Apple has carried out to ensure the updating of tablets with older chips.
Watch 8
Communication, mindfulness and connectivity: these are the three key points, declared at WWDC 2021, around which the experience of using the new software dedicated to Apple Watch will revolve. Fitness is improved with the inclusion of Tai Chi and Pilates, with dedicated exercises that will integrate with the Music app, which will offer playlists dedicated to training in collaboration with famous artists such as Lady Gaga. As for the new watch faces, the new photo dial, which will allow you to view one of the user's camera roll photos on the display, inserting the digital time between the foreground subject and the portrait mode background, so as to further customize this type of dial much appreciated by users.
The Apple Watch will then borrow from iOS 15 the new possibilities of Wallet with keys and (soon) identity documents, as well as the filters on notifications offered by the new Focus mode. On WatchOS 8 it will be possible to use the app where is to find the objects to which an Apple Tag has been applied and better manage messages, which by integrating dictation, emoticons and scribble in the same screen will allow you to correct the dictated text before sending it, making the user experience more fluid and giving the possibility to send even complex messages without having to remove the smartphone from the pockets. The offer of improvements to the Contacts app, the possibility to launch multiple timers and the always on with more information for a greater number of applications complete the offer.
MacOS Monterey
There are also many optimizations announced at WWDC 2021 for the new MacOS, although here we will limit ourselves to pointing out the most important: the concept of "Shared space". With all the updated devices it will be possible to combine iMac, MacBook and iPad and use them with extreme simplicity by moving files from one device to another with a simple drag and drop. By dragging the mouse cursor of your Mac to the side of the screen, for example, you will see it appear on the MacBook or iPad screen and you can continue working on that device, using it as a second screen or opening an app that maybe we have installed only on that device.
The practical applications of this mode are many: think for example of being able to make a sketch on the iPad, drag it to the Mac to modify it and then bring it back to the iPad to take it to work and show it to colleagues, all with a simple drag and drop.
Although graphic changes or particularly innovative features have not been shown, in this WWDC 2021 Apple has once again demonstrated the will to optimize its ecosystem, favoring communication between devices, ease of use, graphic cleanliness and consequently productivity. . With an important focus on the connection between people, this WWDC coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that it can offer many useful tools, on new smartphones and tablets but also on older iPhones and iPads, to the happiness of those who do not yet have the latest top-of-the-range model. We now await the analysis of the first beta of the new OS, which will surely reveal new features and maybe give us some anticipation on what the hardware of the iPhone 13 will be.
