Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is an annual event that previews the upcoming updates to Apple’s operating systems for their devices. Things were a bit different this year as leaks hinted that there will be a preview of upcoming pro-level Macbook models, but there was none as Apple kept WWDC a software exclusive event.
That doesn’t take away all the niceties Apple users will soon enjoy. Here, I’ve summarized all the best new features for their operating systems.
Before we dig deeper, it’s important to note that Apple took another major step towards privacy for their users in the upcoming iOS 15, iPad OS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS 8.
With the Mail App, a new Mail Privacy Protection will stop senders from utilizing invisible pixels which are used to track if you’ve opened emails and will mask your IP address. Safari has also become more secure with an improved Intelligent Tracking Prevention that will stop others from using your IP address as your unique identifier online, which is used mainly for social profiling in targeted ads.
There’s also now an App Privacy report that will show how often apps accessed data you’ve granted via permissions in the past 7 days. This includes photos, videos, contacts, among others. With this, you can see if an app is prying too much with your infos. You can also see the third-party domains the apps are contacting.
Facetime users will now be able to utilize their selfie camera’s portrait mode during video calls. It’s further enhanced with spatial audio which will place sound depending on where the speaker is on the screen, like if you’re talking to two people and the one on the right is speaking, their voice will come more from the right speaker.
During calls, users can now share their media experience with SharePlay. It allows them to watch videos from one’s phone together, explore an app, or listen to music in Apple Music together.
If you want less distraction while working, iOS 15 will have a Focus feature. This lets the users group notifications in just select what they want to focus on, as its name implies. This means if you’re working with a group and would want less notifs from Lazada, the phone will prioritize notifs from your concerned app and less from others.
iOS 15 will be compatible with devices from the iPhone 6s/6s Plus and later, including the 7th-gen iPod Touch.
iPad users will enjoy the same new features from iOS like Focus, SharePlay, and enhanced Facetime calls. What Apple improved for their tablet is its multi-tasking capability. It’s now able to work on a Split View or Slide Over which puts a tab on top of the other. Users will also have the info they want on more screens as widgets are now available on the home page.
This will be available for iPad mini 4 and later, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad 5th generation and later, and all iPad Pro models.
Macs also get improvements from iOS like Facetime, SharePlay, and Focus. Where it deviates is the new Safari browser which is visually simplified and more secure. Shortcuts also arrive on Macs that allows users to get more things done by having pre-built actions.
Apple also enhanced the way the Mac interacts with other devices. There’s a new feature called Universal control that when you can play your iPad near a Mac and your trackpad and keyboard functions will automatically carry over to the iPad. You can type on it using the Mac’s keyboard and even drag and drop files from one device to the other.
For the full list of compatibility, see Apple’s full preview of macOS Monterey.
Apple Watch will be even more personalized with the latest operating system. You can now use photos taken with portrait mode as your watch face and it will integrate the time in the background for a better view – you just have to frame it correctly.
You can also now make messages with a combination of Scribble, dictation, and emoji in one go. Dictated messages can now also be edited and you have the option of adding trending GIFs.
This will be available for Apple Watch Series 3 or later paired with iPhone 6s or later, running iOS 15.
