Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is now a wrap but if you missed it last night, we’re giving you a short recap of the important things that you need to know if you’re an Apple fan.
The Apple Watch is the company’s latest hardware after a number of years so there’s no surprise that they started the event with it. The watchOS 3 apps load speeds are up to seven times faster and there’s a new dock feature and control center like on iOS.
There are also some improvements like quick reply buttons with pre-written responses, a handwriting support app called “Scribble”.
In case there’s an emergency, there’s now an SOS mode that allows you to hold the side button and automatically call 911. If you’re in an international city it will call the corresponding local emergency number.
It also updated the health apps by adding a breath meditation program and a wheelchair-friendly mode to promote regular exercises for handicapped users.
Plus the most important update (for us) is Minnie Mouse is now available as a watch face in addition to the first Mickey from last year. Beat that. The update is coming for everyone this fall.
Started by stating “The future of TV is apps”. There will be a new remote app in case you misplace the physical remote or you need more remotes for multi-player games.
If you don’t like syncing your cable account to access live TV or video on demand on the Apple TV, the new tvOS has a single sign-in mode that lets you login just one to access all the channels that are available in your cable provider. Nice.
As you all know, Apple recently changed the title of OS X to a more simple term: macOS.
The latest OS version will be called Sierra, with a focus on continuity. For example, if you’re wearing an Apple Watch, you can automatically unlock your MacBook just by having the watch nearby. It’s a cool feature but it’s somewhat gimmicky.
it will also have a Universal Clipboard that lets you copy text from your iPhone and paste on your Macbook. Also, there’s an iCloud Drive to help offload older files to make room for local documents.
The macOS Sierra also brings Apple Pay to your desktops as well, with a this new payment feature, it lets you authenticate the payment through your Apple Watch or iPhone through continuity. Great feature if you’re likely to use payments.
There’s also a number of minor updates like bring taps to any apps, picture-in-picture capacity and the most awaited Siri on desktop. She’ll be there waiting right on the dock.
As for iOS 10, there will be a new lockscreen that has a “raise to wake” feature. Also, you can 3D Touch a notification in your lockscreen to reply to messages or apps straight to it and you can swipe right so you can immediately access the camera.
In Photos, you can now see a map-view of where your photos were taken just like Instagram and it will incorporate facial recognition to sort through who’s in you photos. It will also create movies based on photos you took at a certain time if you like to have one.
As of Maps, there will be new recommendation shortcuts for you to find exactly what you want from Maps, such as cuisine types in a restaurant search mode. You can also search for nearby stops on a map route such as gas stations or restaurants and see how long it will take to detour over there.
Music will be getting a redesign from the ground up with larger photos, and better tabs to find music that you have recently added or music that you have downloaded. Just like spotify, there’s a lyrics tab and a daily dose of new plalists.
A new redesign will also come to the News app just like Music that gives you giant fonts to separate each sections. You can also subscribe to newspapers and magazines from the app as well.
Major changes will also come to Messages. There’s invisible ink that lets users tap to unbler a new photo or text. There are new text stylizations that lets you add animations as well like “smash”, “gentle”, and “loud”.
Emoji gets supersized too – exactly three times bigger. and iMessages can recommend emoji to use or turn all your words into an emoji. Wow such updates.
