This evening (Monday 7th June 2021) Apple launched off their annual conference with a keynote announcing the latest changes in Apple’s software platforms. A LOT was announced so I’ll just be looking at some of the major changes with personal reviews coming up this week which will be a lot more in depth, lets look at what’s new with iPhone first.
iOS 15 (& iPadOS15)
The conference started with updates to FaceTime with new features to help you watch and listen to what’s going on more but also with a lot more features allowing you to screen share, watch TV shows together or listen to Apple Music together and queue songs. A lot of these features I’m sure are to help compete with Zoom which obviously grew a lot in use last year with the pandemic.
Amongst this there is many small changes across the system with new ways of interacting with users in messages with things like being able to easy share stuff across the Apple ecosystem to new Memojis. As well there is some changes to maps which look pretty cool but nothing major.
Something which is brand new is “Focus” Focus in a way is like having different profiles on your phone which alter which notifications you will see and what widgets and apps you have on your home screen depending on the profile you select. For example, you could have a profile for work which would display all your work notifications and certain widgets like your calendar could be displayed on your home screen.
Safari has had a massive overall in iOS 15, I’m not going to comment on it further until I’ve had a proper look at it as the changes, I am not sure on.
For iPadOS there is a massive improvement in how the operating system handles Multitasking, with a new menu all you need to do is swipe down, press a button and you can return to your home screen whilst keeping the other app open. This is just one of the many improvements to multitasking with new things like the Shelf view and the app library being added to the iPad.
WatchOS 8
It didn’t really feel like much happened with WatchOS 8 and at the moment I can’t comment much as I haven’t tried it yet, it’s installing whilst I write this. This is some of the highlights though:
- A new Photo watch face which works with portrait mode to display the time which does look pretty cool I can’t deny.
- FINNALY a redesigned Home app which I am so happy about because the current one is so awful to use and navigate and it didn’t really even do anything.
- Also got a new redesigned Music app
- No longer is it just Find People but we now have Find My so we can see our AirTags on the watch now.
- Now you can create a timer for the egg and the toast.
AirPods, Privacy & iCloud
The AirPods even got their own little mention this year with new features coming like “Conversation boost” which can help with hearing. It also has Find My improvements which I think we’re defiantly needed as I feel like I’m always losing my AirPods.
Privacy always gets a mention at Apple events and this one was no different with Craig letting us know that Privacy is what matters most at Apple he told us that there is a new App Privacy report which will tell you what apps have been using in the past 7 days.
Apple also announced a new service called iCloud+ which comes at the same price as when you buy expanded storage. It has new privacy features to prevent even more tracking on Safari as well as expanded HomeKit secure video support.
There is so much more to cover and write about this is just a summary of the initial keynote. Stay tuned on my website here: www.kylewilkinsonblog.com and on my Twitter www.twitter.com/kylewilkinson46 I’ll be writing a much more in-depth review of iOS 15 and WatchOS 15 this week as well as the smaller bits.
Thanks for reading,
Kyle Wilkinson
Screenshot used for the thumbnail of this blog post is taken from Apple.com/newsroom on 07.06.21. May of changed since. All rights are owned by Apple.
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